The recent heavy snowstorm presented significant challenges to all of us – including our schools, students, and families. We have received several questions from our City Schools community to better understand our strategy in dealing with this weather emergency; we developed this FAQ to provide a more comprehensive districtwide response, rather than responding to individual emails and social media posts.
We are grateful to our Operations Office — and particularly our Facilities crews — for their work around the clock since the snowstorm in clearing walkways, parking lots, and driveways around our schools and offices. We also appreciate the efforts of Baltimore City in clearing city streets, walkways, and bus stops.
Questions:
What has been done by district staff so far?
City Schools' operations team first did comprehensive work to pre-treat all surfaces leading up to the storm. Since then, the operations team has cleared and continued to re-clear and maintain all school parking lots and driveways. In addition, there are 46 schools with significant amounts of walkways and pathways that we also clear centrally. All these pieces are complete.
School custodians (supervised by principals) cleared school sidewalks and walkways and continue to work on challenges like walkways that had been cleared and then inadvertently covered over by snow piles created by plows.
We also partnered with Baltimore City throughout the week to identify priority areas for focus. Of course, those priorities change as earlier priorities get addressed and we all move on to the next tier of work.
What is being prioritized this week to continue clean-up, and what timetable should the community expect going forward?
Last week, City Schools developed a prioritized list of schools that either do not have parking lots or have small parking lots that are not sufficient for the size of their staff. We have 26 schools with no parking lots at all, and another 25-30 with limited parking.
We provided those lists to Baltimore City, and they focused on clearing the side streets around those schools to clear to the curb as much as possible to increase the amount of available parking.
Over the weekend, the City also worked on clearing bus stops so students would have space to stand while they're waiting for the bus.
During the week beginning February 1, 2026, we provided the City with an updated list of priorities, including schools needing clearing for:
Curbside drop off for buses
Bus stops near schools
Neighborhood streets
City Schools staff focused on loading docks to allow trash pick-ups. We continue to reassess and review parking lots for any outstanding areas or additional snow piles.
We are also continuing to monitor facility issues such as heating and pipe ruptures.
Even with all this in place, given the forecasted below-freezing temperatures throughout this week and next weekend, the return to in-person learning will face challenges – especially with parking and commuting.
What went into the carpooling recommendation?
We have developed a centralized satellite parking strategy. Working with partners around the city like the Orioles, Recreation and Parks, and the Baltimore City Department of Transportation, we have created satellite parking lots in different parts of the city.
We communicated with the principals of the highest need schools in each of those quadrants so they can utilize these satellite locations for teachers coming in multiple cars to park — then drive in a single car to the school; or school administrators can shuttle teachers to and from the satellite locations.
We also communicated to Community Schools coordinators to ask that they work at the school level to identify partners in their area who could support with parking.
Who decides to close or delay the opening of schools and offices?
The Chief of Staff bears the primary responsibility for making those types of decisions.
The safety and well-being of our students is a primary concern in any decision related to weather-related school closings or delayed openings.
However, we consider the ability of our young people to benefit from classroom instruction to be a significant part of student well-being and an essential element in their academic success.
We believe every day in the classroom is precious, and that we can best serve students’ interests when we can safely keep our classrooms open for instruction. As such, we strive to keep schools open whenever possible, as long as we can do so safely.
How did virtual learning perform across the district?
We clearly learned from the pandemic that virtual learning is not an effective way for many of our students to learn. It negatively impacts their academic performance and has significantly negative social and emotional impacts.
Virtual learning also prevents students from accessing school meals, which are a critical source of nutrition for many of our students and families. For all these reasons, our central and school teams have worked tirelessly and taken comprehensive steps to get students in-person as quickly as possible.
What was the attendance this week for students and staff?
Daily student attendance rates were as follows, compared with equivalent dates last year:
1/29/26 = 76.2% - Virtual 1/30/25 = 87.1% - in person
1/30/26 = 76% - Virtual 1/31/25 = 82.9% - in person
2/2/26 = 75.4% - in person 2/3/25 = 75.8% = in person
In summary, virtual attendance rates this year were significantly lower than those of equivalent in-person dates last year. Monday’s in-person attendance was roughly equivalent to the same day last year.
What is the plan for the rest of the week, and what were our lessons learned for next time?
We plan to be in person because students should be in person. Families are always free to act in what they believe to be the best interests of their children. We believe those interests are best served by keeping schools open whenever possible, as long as we can do so safely.