MCPS Snow Heroes Provide Important Services During Winter Storm Jonas

February 24, 2016

Not every super hero flies; some safely transport MCPS students through hazardous weather conditions, or open their school during snow closures to allow students to receive hot meals and participate in structured activities.  A snowy February presented the opportunity for a few MCPS employees – dubbed “Snow Heroes”-- to exhibit exemplary care and concern for MCPS students.  The Foundation was pleased to join MCPS in recognizing these very special colleagues who stepped up to keep students safe and schools accessible for families to receive free hot lunches. In thanks, capes were not available, so each staffer received a Snow Hero t-shirt to be worn whenever he or she wishes to feel super.

Celebrating our "Snow Hero" bus drivers who went above & beyond for our students in the run-up to Winter Storm Jonas

Department of Transportation

Bus Drivers who drove students home from athletics competitions on 1/20/16 on an icy, dangerous beltway with stand still traffic

• Blair High School   Iwee Kamah  Route 6127  Westfarm Depot
• Damascus High Skip Richard  Route 2612
• Springbrook High  Michael Hines  Route 6328  Westfarm Depot
• Northwest High  Scott Leizma   Route 2417  Clarksburg Depot
• Northwest High Truong Cong Huynh  Route 2403  Clarksburg Depot
• Gaithersburg High Tina Sciandra Route # 4109  Shady Grove North Depot
• Seneca Valley High Chao Cheng Yu  Route 2406  Clarksburg Depot
• Walter Johnson High  Keith Valentine  Route 1314  Bethesda Depot
• Churchill High Darryl Chappell  Route 1225  Bethesda Depot
• Wootton High  Jean-Paul Bebey  Route 5323  Shady Grove South Depot
• Richard Montgomery High Abid Latif  Route 5994  Shady Grove South Depot
• Paint Branch High Hugh Black Route 6201  Westfarm Depot
• Quince Orchard High Kelly Hailey  Route 2993 Clarksburg Depot
• Northwood High Tomas Guzman Route 3215  Randolph Depot
• MagruderHigh  Gary Riley Route 4227  Shady Grove North Depot
• Watkins Mill High Herman Sastra  Route 2319 Clarksburg Depot
• WaltWhitman High  Chin Kwong  Route 1412 Bethesda Depot
• Wheaton High Susana Iraheta  Route 3505 Randolph Depot
• Kennedy High Wendy Cooper Route 3419 Randolph Depot
• Einstein High Tewelde Debesai  Route 3115 Randolph Depot
• Sherwood High  Hugo Aleman  Route 3310  Randolph Depot
• Bethesda Chevy Chase High  Pablo Paez  Route 1127 Bethesda Depot
• Clarksburg High  Francis Annan  route 2626  Clarksburg Depot
• Todd Watkins- analysis of neighborhoods, bus stops and walking paths to make recommendations about the opening of school. The training
  provided to the bus drivers to support them with using it in a difficult
  situation

Department of Facilities Management- organizing and implementing the removal of over 36 inches of snow on 202 locations over
497 square miles. Crews working 20-24 hour shifts from the first flake through the continued melting of the snow mounds

Lynn Zarate (Department of Maintenance) , Dianne Jones
(School Plant Operations), James Song (Department of Facilities Management)

Department of Food and Nutrition Services 

Marla Caplon- opening up 11 lunch sites for families to
receive meals during the blizzards. Staffed sites and even served lunches when
extra hands were needed. 

Office of School Support & Improvement - Principals who graciously accepted the request to open their cafeterias to the community and serve lunch. They not only opened up
their schools but also mobilized their staff to support and worked with SROs and other community members to make families feel welcome in the building. 2,448 children; 770 adults; total of 3,218 people were fed free hot lunches on Wednesday- Friday during the week of the closure.

• Greencastle- Dr. Ayesha McArthur Moore Daly- Nora Deitz. Nora also contacted teachers to support
  with visiting students at home to deliver meals.
• Washington Grove- Susan Barranger
• Jody Leleck at Broad Acres- Cindy Chichester- Ollivierre
• Roscoe Nix- Annette Ffolkes
• Clopper Mill- Ocheze Joseph.  Seneca Valley and Northwest Cluster elementary principals and assistant principals went to Clopper Mill to support Dr. Joseph.  Scott Curry, Great Seneca Creek ES, Amy Bryant, Germantown ES, Elise Burgess, Dr. Sally K. Ride, Wanda Coates and
  Susie Prin,  S. Christa McAuliffe, Teri Johnson, Lake Seneca, Srelyne
  Harris, Waters Landing
• Gaithersburg ES- Stephanie Brandt
• Harmony Hills- Dr. Carole Rawlison
• Arcola- Emmanuel Jean-Philippe
• New Hampshire Estates- Bob Geiger
• Whetstone ES- Vicky Casey
• Sgt. Shriver ES- Zoraida Brown

Office of Communications

Derek Turner- first weather system for which he communicated information about the opening of schools in advance and with clarity. He also kept students academically engaged during the snow by Tweeting out snow trivia questions.