While most Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) opened Monday morning following a two-hour delay, three upcounty schools remained closed due to icy conditions on their campuses, according to district communications.  

Classes were cancelled at Damascus High School, Hallie Wells Middle School in Clarksburg and John T. Baker Middle School in Damascus, according to the high school’s website and messages from the middle schools on Monday. 

At roughly 4:30 p.m. Sunday, MCPS announced county schools would be opening two hours late due to areas of the county receiving up to  3 inches of snow. District transportation and operations teams spent Sunday clearing the snow and ice from schools and buses, MCPS said in the announcement. That work was to continue into Monday morning as temperatures were forecasted to be in the mid-teens and wind chill conditions were “expected to cause refreezing on roads, sidewalks, and parking lots,” the district said in an email to the MCPS community. 

The district said the delay would allow facilities team members to treat remaining patches of snow and ice. “Extra time in the morning will also help transportation team members to warm up buses and have extra time for safe travel,” the district said. 

The district noted that while roads and sidewalks in some areas may have been cleared Sunday, staff that serve the schools in those area may be dealing with travel conditions that would make it difficult to get to school on time and other schools may be facing more difficult conditions.  

That was the case for the three schools that remained closed Monday.  

The Damascus High website said the school would be closed because “cold temperatures and higher amounts of precipitation in the more northern parts of our county have hampered work to adequately remove ice on some school roadways and parking lots.”  

Hallie Wells and Baker Middle School did not release messages on their websites as of Monday morning. According to messages sent Monday to families and shared on social media, icy conditions at Hallie Wells and Baker Middle were causing unsafe conditions. Baker Middle School staff confirmed in a phone call Monday that the school was closed. A phone call to Hallie Wells Middle went to voicemail.  

Typically, MCPS makes decisions to close or delay schools on a district-wide basis. According to the MCPS website, the decision for closures “is always for the entire system” so “the school system can respond quickly to emergency conditions and protect the safety and well being of students and staff who attend both public and non-public schools and receive transportation services from Montgomery County.”  

MCPS spokesperson Chris Cram didn’t immediately respond Monday to emailed questions about why the district decided to close the three schools and maintain a delay status for the rest of its schools.  

The delay and closure decision comes after two weather incidents resulted in criticism for the district. On Dec. 2, MCPS announced that morning that the start of classes would be delayed due to inclement weather. MCPS Superintendent Thomas Taylor on Dec. 2 sent a community apology regarding the timing of that decision as well as the inclusion of incorrect information that morning child care had been cancelled.  

Then, on Dec. 5, many parents raised concerns over a decision to open schools on time after parts of the county received as much as 1.5 inches of snow into the morning. On Dec. 5, dozens of collisions occurred throughout the county as road conditions included low visibility due to heavy snowfall and slick conditions caused by snow sticking to roadways because of low temperatures, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS) officials told Bethesda Today.  

MCPS school buses were involved in about a half dozen incidents, often involving the buses getting stuck at the bottoms of hills or sliding on roads. Some parents reported on social media that their students’ buses got stuck on roadways, were late arriving or didn’t arrive at all.