Splitsville in HoCo

Today’s post begins with a tweet from the Howard CountyTimes:

The decision on whether to activate a virtual instruction day would lie with Superintendent Michael Martirano, who said he prefers the virtual instruction plan over extending the school year into late June.

It’s not about the tweet.

It contains a link to an article about potential changes to inclement weather school cancellations.

Will traditional snow days go away in Howard County schools, with virtual learning options? Not exactly.(Ethan Ehrenhaft, Baltimore Sun)

It’s not about the article.

It’s about this response to the tweet and the article.

Split the county.

Wait, what? Your first response to a story about snow days is “split the county”?

How would you split it exactly? Straight down the middle? Western Howard County/Everyone else? Columbia/Everyone else? Walkers vs. those who take the bus?

The Howard County School system covers a fairly large geographical area. They have to take into consideration the weather and road conditions throughout the region. Sometimes that looks like canceling school on a day where it’s hazardous in some areas but not in others. That can be frustrating.

So let’s just split the county. That’ll fix it.

I understand the thought process behind this argument but reading the words gave me a chill.

Aren’t we split enough already? Don’t we read almost daily the words of someone justifying their own particular divisions? Railing for special treatment for “people like us” while tuning out the needs and humanity of “those people”?

I’m about to go off the rails here, aren’t I?

What do you think? Will splitting the county solve the problem of snow days? Or - - if you’ll pardon my choice of words - - does it put us on a slippery slope of using division to benefit some and disenfranchise others?

Comments

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents. When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...

Getting Fresh

One of my favorite days in the Spring comes when this year’s list of Farmer’s Markets is released. That happened this week. New this year are markets in Old Ellicott City and the “Merriweather Market” which, according to the address, will be located here . I mistakenly thought at first glance that it was in the new-construction part of the Merriweather District. I find the name confusing considering its actual location. I’m going to guess that this market is an initiative of the Howard Hughes Corporation because the name seems chosen more for branding purposes than anything else. Alas, the market in Maple Lawn is gone. The thread on the markets on the County Executive’s FB page will provide you with quite the education in who actually runs the Farmers Markets vs what people often think is going on. Short answer: they are not chosen nor run by the county. Each market is an independent entity, sometimes started by community volunteers, other times supported by local businesses...

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday. Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018. 2018 . But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest. In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...

Village Green/Town²

Search This Blog