County’s Snow Response Impacts Greenbelt Children, Schools, Parents

For Greenbelt families with children in public schools, the winter break, already longer than previous years at two weeks, lasted almost three weeks in the end with schools remaining closed until 11 a.m. on Friday, January 10. Though the snow stopped falling Monday, days later the county’s roads were still unplowed in areas and bus stops and sidewalks needed by the schools had not yet been cleared.
On Thursday, January 9, Prince George’s County Director of Public Works Michael Johnson released a video message about the county’s response. He said he understood residents’ frustrations and said the county is responsible for clearing more than 2,000 miles of roads and has been working in 12-hour shifts since Sunday to do so. Johnson dispelled the rumor that the county had run out of salt, saying they’d had 43,000 tons at the start of the storm and had used just over 6,000 tons by Thursday. The difficulty is that the salt stops being effective at temperatures below 20 degrees, explained Johnson. On Friday, January 10, Acting County Executive Tara Jackson said the county had heard from frustrated residents and “the operation [to clear roads] did not meet my expectations,” she said. Jackson also announced that the county had switched from salt to a deicing compound.
For Greenbelters who enjoyed passable roads from Monday onward, one of the largest impacts of the much-criticized county response was the inability to reopen schools for days. Working parents with small children reported working at night, when their little ones were asleep, and sharing the care load with neighbors, taking groups sledding or to the Cinema’s snow day movies while others worked. “Three or four days of no school can be pretty devastating for working parents,” said Elise Young, a Greenbelt mother of two. Although she had some flexibility in her work, she was still working until 2 a.m. to complete assignments. “Others are not so lucky and have to choose between losing pay or taking care of their children,” said Young. “In extreme cases it can cost people their jobs. And regardless, it is always an extra heavy care burden on mothers,” she said.
On Thursday and Friday, Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) opened five emergency meal distribution sites in the county, including one at Greenbelt Middle School. The sites provided breakfasts and lunches that could be picked up for students who rely on schools to provide meals.
Though Greenbelt’s streets and even many sidewalks were cleared quickly, that wasn’t the case for the county, and even in Greenbelt the school parking lots remained under snow and ice for days. While Greenbelt has its own Public Works Department to respond to snow in the city, the schools’ grounds are part of the county’s jurisdiction. Greenbelt Elementary School’s parking lot was not plowed until Wednesday afternoon. Schools finally opened with a two-hour delay on Friday.
Administrators at Dora Kennedy French Immersion in Greenbelt sent a message to families warning them of icy areas on the school grounds that morning and assuring them that staff would be ready to greet students and help them upon arrival. Principal James Spence and teacher Philip Held were shoveling parts of the school’s two parking lots themselves Friday morning.
For PGCPS the challenge of opening schools after snow is complicated by the size of the county and the need for not only clear roads but also clear bus stops, bus lanes and sidewalks for children who walk to school. That’s in addition to parking lots and neighborhood streets throughout the almost 500-square-mile district. Still, neighboring counties, including Montgomery and Anne Arundel, both of which are larger in size and Montgomery County Public Schools also having more schools, opened by Thursday, January 9. D.C. Public Schools and Howard County Public Schools, which are smaller school districts, reopened two days before PGCPS, on Wednesday.
The author has two children who currently attend Dora Kennedy French Immersion.