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Boston snow emergency goes into effect at noon on Monday
By adamg on Sun, 01/31/2021 - 6:22pm
Most immediately, that means no parking on designated main roads - towing begins promptly at noon, so look for free or low-cost parking. BPS kids who normally would go to school will instead have to fire up the Zoom screens - and all students will be released from classes 2 1/2 hours early. BPS meal sites will be open on Monday, but BYCF meal sites will not.
This could be Mayor Walsh's last snow emergency in Boston. No word yet if he'll remind us this isn't Loon Mountain, you know, for old time's sake.
Also, the snow emergency means you get to fiercely defend your on-street parking space for up to 48 hours after the snow emergency is called off (except in the South End, where you're never supposed to try to save a space).
Neighborhoods:
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Comments
Partial day of remote learning
Why in the hell is BPS having a "partial day of remote learning" tomorrow. My kids in BPS have been remote since last March. Why in the world does it matter that it is snowing outside? How can that possibly have an impact on the ability to have a full day of remote learning? Is the union that far outside any semblance of the reality the rest of us have to deal with in these days?
The teachers union is the most powerful force in Massachusetts politics, but even they may be forced to learn a lesson if they don't consider the heat in the pot that is beginning to boil. If enough pissed off parents and employers unify the politicians could begin to fear them more than the union. Then things could see positive change.
It is not progressive to fail in the education of our youth. Union power is not the priority, even if it always has been in the past.
This has nothing to do with teachers or the union
This comes from Cassellius and the higher ups. No need to get all worked up.
Then it's Cassellius and the higher ups
that don't give a crap about Boston's students. The online school day is already shorter than a regular school day and now they want to cut it down even more because of some snow. If it were a regular year, then sure, who doesn't love a snow day. But this is not a regular year. The kids have missed out on so much schooling already. My high schooler is in online school/actual class time for about 3 hours a day at the most. And why they include studies during the online school day is beyond me. It's bad enough the online school days are shorter, they are not getting anywhere near the education they would normally be getting but the school takes days and hours off of classes for all sorts of things that are not necessary. Again, if it were a normal school year, great, but it is not a normal school year. I'm sorry I want my kid and all Boston kids to get good educations. I just wish the mayor, BPS and some school administrators felt the same way.
Sure
Of course it has to do with the union. Ignorance can be overcome; stupidity is forever. Willful ignorance is a different matter.
The Unions have been the ones
The Unions have been the ones fighting tooth and nail to not go back to in person learning already.
<lights strobe in rear view>
I know in retrospect
That Reagan sucked on economics and AIDS, but he doesn't get more talk for firing the air traffic controllers.
Why don't we try that with teachers? COVID would have been a great time to hit the reset button, can the lot, and bring back the good ones. We don't value education more than we value air travel, so why not try?
I'd also ask why we don't try that with cops, but we value abuse and harassment more than we value air travel.
As a parent
It is far past the time that parents banded together to make demands on the system.
Parents have been conditioned to think we have little power over a system that doesn't always serve our children's needs (see, remote learning - parents are afraid to speak out about the issues for various reasons). They have also made it impossible to petition on behalf of our children throughout this experiment.
Is your kid having a problem with remote learning? Are they not able to engage? Are they falling behind? We are told to talk to our kid's teachers. But the teacher isn't going to engage in a full-court press lobby for the kids in their classes who absolutely NEED that additional time on a snow day or to return to a classroom because that would require advocating against their own union. And as it stands currently, it takes months for them to acknowledge concerns, come up with a plan, and perform the testing needed to decide that your child does need 20 minutes a day of focused math work, which just puts them further and further behind.
And before anyone says "this isn't how it works in my classroom" or "my Sally's teacher is incredibly responsive", know that you are exceptions to what is happening in every school, every day, and your reactions to comments like mine only serve to diminish the concerns of others who are struggling and further condition them to believe that this is something they need to suffer through on their own.
Go play in the snow
Since winter began, I've been hearing complaints from parents about how their kids used to enjoy the break that snow days gave them, but with remote learning they have to just be little office drudges like the rest of us. A number of districts have been having "snow days", remote learning or no, just to give the kids (and everyone) a bit of a break - no vast union conspiracy involved. You might try making some snow angels yourself, but please do change out of the cranky pants first.
But why a half day?
Our kid has gotten one snow day so far this year, and I don't begrudge school districts for doing it. That said, the point of an early dismissal is to get the kids home safely before the storm gets into full gear. If the kids and teachers are already home, there is no point to it. My kid is getting an 11:30 dismissal today for reasons I cannot fathom, as his teacher is at home today. That said, if BPS teachers are being required to teach from their 11 month empty classrooms, it totally makes sense.
Because a half day still counts
The federal funding counts the number of student per day and adjusts $$ accordingly. But a half day still counts. So by going for a half day, they can still give kids some time outside, keep the maximum funding, and still keep the school ending dates the same. Also, for those kids who do go to in person school (the high need students), the switch to remote is much harder and I imagine it's easier on them to manage a half day.
I don’t know about Boston,
I don’t know about Boston, but in Belmont, teachers generally teach the remote sessions from their classrooms, not from home, which means they need to get home before the snow gets bad.
OTOH, I think that the schools are struggling to meet the State’s required hours of education so they’re clinging to every bit they can (partial day) instead of just having a whole snow day.
Wakefield snow emergency parking ban
is from 5 pm Monday to 5 pm Tuesday.
Get those space savers
Get those space savers prepped for deployment.
I hope everyone here
has their life size Bernie Sanders (and Adam Gaffin) space savers ready.
Oh.. we need one of these
Oh we need one of these. Just for the photo.
Adam, send me photo of you holding up a UH bumper sticker. Lets make this happen.