Sidewalks, Narrow Roads May Force Monday MCPS Closures

Rockville High School is ready for students, but many area roads and sidewalks are not. (Photo: Montgomery Fix 1/31/2026)

Site visits today by Montgomery Fix to schools in the Rockville High School cluster found school campuses themselves in excellent condition following last weekend’s snow and ice storm, but access routes to those buildings remain uneven.

The review included Lucy V. Barnsley Elementary School, Flower Valley Elementary School, Rock Creek Valley Elementary School, Meadow Hall Elementary School, Maryvale Elementary School, Earle B. Wood Middle School, and Rockville High School.

On school properties, snow had been fully cleared from sidewalks, parking lots, and drop-off areas. The campuses appeared safe and accessible for buses, cars, and pedestrians.

Flower Valley Elementary School (Photo Credit: Montgomery Fix 1/31/2026)

Lucy V. Barnsley Elementary School (Photo Credit: Montgomery Fix 1/31/2026)

Off campus, however, the situation was mixed for sidewalks and neighborhood driving conditions. In many residential areas surrounding the schools, streets were reduced to a single passable lane, with twisty tracks carved between snowbanks and occasional ice and snow lumps still in the travel path. A school bus could likely make it through these streets, but the narrow lanes would create traffic pinch points, with vehicles forced to pause and negotiate passing in tight stretches.

Beyond small residential streets, some feeder and secondary neighborhood roads also showed significant obstructions that could complicate bus operations, especially during morning arrival windows when traffic volumes increase. On Parkvale Drive just before the intersection with Baltimore Road, an area used by Rockville High School buses and students and notorious for traffic accidents, travel is reduced to an icy path fit for a single vehicle, cut haphazardly over the double yellow line.

Parkvale Drive leading to the intersection with Baltimore Road (Photo Credit: Montgomery Fix 1/31/2026)

The biggest complication for buses will be finding areas to safely pick up and drop off students, with most regular bus stop areas choked off with mounds of plowed ice and difficult to access via sidewalks.

Access to the sidewalk on First Street two blocks before Maryvale Elementary School is completely blocked with a wall of snow and ice, and the sidewalk itself is only partly clear. (Photo Credit: Montgomery Fix 1/31/2026)

Sidewalk clearance remains the most consistent concern area wide. While an estimated 80–90% of sidewalks in front of homes were shoveled in areas surveyed, publicly maintained sidewalks were cleared in only about half. Major walking routes to schools remain problematic, or even impassable, including Bauer Drive leading to Wood Middle School, Russett Road approaching Rock Creek Valley Elementary School, and First Street in the blocks immediately before Maryvale Elementary School. These county-maintained segments were still heavily snow-covered as of mid-afternoon on Saturday, January 31st.

Intersection of Norbeck Road and Bauer Drive. A crossing guard leads hundreds of students through the busy crossing each school day. The sidewalk is completely untouched since last weekend’s storm. (Photo Credit: Montgomery Fix 1/31/2026)

Sections of sidewalk like this on Russett Road adjacent to park property remain ice-covered in the blocks leading toward Rock Creek Valley Elementary School. (Photo Credit: Montgomery Fix 1/31/2026)

If schools are closed Monday in Montgomery County, it won’t reflect problems on school grounds. They look great. Instead, the limiting factors will be inconsistent clearing of public sidewalks, remaining obstructions along key routes, and the narrow, partially cleared neighborhood streets that could turn routine bus travel into a stop-and-go challenge, and make the regular walk to school a serious safety risk.

Earle B. Wood Middle School (Photo Credit: Montgomery Fix 1/31/2026)