In NYC, a priority for sanitation workers and day laborers hired to shovel snow is bus stops. They are cleared first, along with a path from the sidewalk to the street for people waiting for buses. There aren’t that many school buses here but I’ve seen them use city bus stops as well.
still many lanes that disappear on highly traveled main roads, and a lack of turn lanes.
highways are fine
The D.C. tickets were issued for cars parked along snow emergency routes. There’s only about a million signs posted warning against this, everywhere, city or suburbs. Why should people get by with it when it happens? They predicted this storm for nearly a week Parking lots and garages in D.C. lowered their rates to $1 a day so folks could park there. Now plows cannot clear the streets as needed because they are full of parked, snowed in cars.
Yes, DC friends, when it snows, snow banks are a problem, traffic is awful, sidewalks a mess. Happens all the time in New England when multiple storms come and we get the deep freeze. Look at Boston last year. You guys are lucky, nice warm temps now. You have to hack at the snow, every day. Pile it high. I can’t believe school is still cancelled 7 days after a storm. Bizarre.
Schools here are by county, so the area covered is very large. You can have urban parts of the county, along with rather rural parts. If one part is not deemed safe, the whole district must close.
Yes, our county goes from a very, very rural mountain community in the northwest to total suburbia in the opposite corner. The whole county system closes because those people on “the mountain” cannot get their kids down to meet the buses. Seriously.
School was back in session -two hours late -on Thursday. Tuesday and Wednesday we were traveling around just fine. Kids are delighted that semester final exams were cancelled. Their grades are mostly A’s anyway.
Finally received the Sunday newspaper, on Thursday.
We usually have about five snow days built in the schedule. I understand that Saturday make up days are not legal in VA. They would not dare to cut Spring Break short because of the number of families who make advanced reservations. We seem to have had many week long school interruptions over the time I’ve been a parent. There was 9-11, the D.C. Sniper, two hurricanes, many snowcopalypses…
Back in 1996, we lived in VA and lost five days of school. They made them up on a Saturday, Memorial Day and Spring Break. It was in Virginia Beach and they had no built in snow days. Everyone complained, but they had enough in school for the makeup days to count, and I don’t think they’ve ever done that again.
The size of the school district really matters. Fairfax County had close to 200 schools and covers a huge area from inside the beltway to almost Dulles airport and from the Potomac River down to Mount Vernon. My county ranging from an urban area to very rural with farms also has over 100 schools. Often the rural roads are unplowed for days.
This contrasts with townships in Pennsylvania. Lower Merion Township has maybe a dozen schools.
^That county size disparity is the first reason I’ve heard here that reasonably explains schools still closed down there. Cuz everything else–road problems, bus stops, mounds of snow, etc happen farther north, too. But the towns get the schools safely open much quicker, no matter what. I do think, too, that it’s just practice in the NE, as well. We don’t get as much snow as Maine or Mass in NJ, but we get enough to know the drill.
Our town also had all cars off snow emergency roads on Saturday. They went around all Sat. night with loudspeakers and tow trucks to clear anyone who didn’t get the message. By Sunday morning, there were basically no cars on the streets. That definitely helped. Then they let people park where they could after plowing, and suspended ticketing for a week. I’m very pleased with the effectiveness of their operations.
Another rationale: If a little single-town school district in New Jersey or Pennsylvania asks for a waiver of the 180-days-of-school requirement, the state can laugh in its face.
If a huge county-wise school system such as those in Montgomery County, Maryland or Fairfax County, Virginia asks for a waiver, the state tends to say yes.
So the big school systems may not feel as pressured to reopen quickly.
Montgomery County is now closed for a sixth day, and I see no end in sight because you still can’t send kids to the bus stops.
My kids went through maryland schools their entire lives. I’ve never seen the schools have to make up snow days at the end of the year, the governor has waived it every year.
Anyone wonder why our kids can’t compete academically against the world?
I’ve never heard of waivers for snow days. Even when NJ closed down for SAndy for a week or more, any days more than the extra days built into the calendar had to be made up.
I had no idea that waiving the mandated number of days was a thing in other states; literally never heard of it before!
I think once we got a waiver for a day or two of snow days. A LONG time ago. School here can’t go after June 30 and no Saturday make up days.
Now districts start much earlier…and some vacation and holiday days have been eliminated from the calendar (e.g. Many districts here have school on Veterans Day). For most districts, that means the last day of school is about June 8 or so. Plenty of time to make up a ton of snow days before June 30.
And almost every district has a provision to eliminate part of the spring break if snow days exceed a certain number by March 1. It’s right on the school calendar.
There are a certain number of days/hours built into the calendars. If you go over that number, you make them up - to a certain point. Then you can ask for a waiver. For example, if you miss 13 days and have 5 built in, you makeup 5 and ask for the other 3 to be waivered. That is pretty much what happened in 2003 and 2010 in NoVa and MD.
I heard in the store today that a teacher fell on ice at her school (school was closed but it was a work day) and had to be hospitalized. It’s been above freezing during the day so snow melts, runs into any plowed areas and refreezes into ice, that lasts until late the next morning. Then repeat.
We live off a road with a metro stop at the end which meets with a major intersection. (Fairfax County, VA) The snow is piled high on the side of the roads leaving no option for the metro walkers but to walk on the road. Even for school kids there is no place to stand but the road. This morning as I approached the main intersection and drove slowly to the red traffic light I saw pedestrians struggling to cross the street to get to the metro station. It was a very unclean and slippery road to walk on this morning. A elderly man was crossing the road to get to the other side. Meanwhile the light turned green and this car sped forward in a rush to make a turn almost running over the pedestrian. The car passed and this person was standing in the middle of the road. I let him cross the road safely before driving forward. I wanted to report that driver. Green means proceed with caution. I have been so cautious of people walking on the road. It is a dangerous situation so one has to drive slowly and proceed with caution around here. I feel for those who have to walk in this mess with no option but to walk on the main road.
I agree that it seems bizarre that schools are closed for so long. Even with large counties, is it not possible to have the schools open but just the buses cancelled? That happens here quite often. What are all these parents doing? Are they taking six days off work? Are kids being left alone?
Another factor in school closing a is that there can be differing conditions in larger districts. For example Montgomery Co. MD and Loudoun Co VA both have closer in areas where the roads might be clear but it is a different story in the outlying more rural areas. The closings are county wide and have to consider this.