In an email to parents on the night of Thursday, December 4th, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) announced that there was going to be a wintry mix (a mixture of freezing rain and snow) earlier than expected on Friday, December 5th, which could affect students and staff on their trip to school. Due to this, MCPS stated that they would evaluate and notify families of their decision regarding school operations for Friday as soon as possible.
On Friday morning, everybody woke up and saw snow falling from above. People began to look for MCPS notifications and emails to see what decision had been made, and also tuned into the local news channels, hoping to see that school was closed, or at least had a 2-hour delay. However, all they got was an email from MCPS at 5:09 AM announcing that schools would open on time. In the email, MCPS explained that their decision was made after looking at the National Weather Service (NWS), which stated that there would be a “slight chance of light snow” with “minimal accumulation possible on untreated roads”. Therefore, they decided it would be okay for schools to open on time.
When children and parents walked outside and drove on the roads, they found that visibility was slightly off, and the roads were a bit slippery. This could be dangerous because that increases risk of car crashes, as snow and ice on the roads can cause cars to lose traction and have a harder time stopping, and low visibility might make it hard to see drivers surroundings. At Paint Branch, it was an interesting scene as students walked along hallways and on staircases where they could see snow falling outside, which is not what they typically see during school days, but rather, at home. At lunch, people decided to walk outside for a few seconds to check out the snow, which lasted until about midway through the afternoon.
At the end of the day, the Baltimore-Washington NWS Office said only 1 inch of snow fell in Laurel, and the highest total in Montgomery County was 1.6 inches around Wheaton, which seemed to corroborate MCPS’s and the NWS’ thoughts that the snow was “light” and would not cause problems. Despite the lack of accumulation, some parents and students weren’t happy with the decision to open schools on time and felt there should have been a delay, or no school at all, saying the conditions outside were still dangerous. The “light” snow that happened could have caused chaos, as there were numerous accidents seen on the roads, including some MCPS school buses across the county.
One reason that MCPS might have decided to open schools on time was that they wanted to avoid a repeat of what some felt was an unnecessary 2-hour delay that happened earlier in the week on Tuesday, December 2nd. On that morning, there was a forecast of a wintry mix occurring as well, and it was decided late at 5:00 AM that schools should be delayed, which forced people to quickly change plans. When there is a delayed school opening, morning (before 10:00 AM) PreK and childcare programs could be canceled, which causes difficulties for some families who rely on them.
However, it turned out to be just regular rain, and people were upset as a result, which caused MCPS’ Superintendent, Dr. Thomas Taylor, to release an apology to parents, stating that “Making the call to delay or close sometimes means that we are working with late or imperfect information. And like today, this often means that there is disruption and inconvenience that follows when we have to make a call later than we’d like.” However, he defended the decision, saying that it was for people’s safety and stated, “Even small amounts of ice and snow can make early-morning travel dangerous.”
