Seattle Schools and Field Trips: What the Heck?
According to a couple of my sources, other SPS high schools, primarily thru their teachers, are pulling back on field trips.
What are the issues?
- the official list of forms at the district website are gone (note: I could not find the webpage that describes what the district is doing BUT I put in "field trip" into Search and I found a 67-page document with all the forms. It is quite a formidable read (both because of format and length).
- according to my source, the official checklist is not complete, with multiple forms required have never existed (and may not exist at all)
- some teachers have been told that they need food handler permits
- the district wants to see maps/plans on how chaperones will account for all the students...4x a night
What a mess.
But frankly, it is a mess made at the hands of management, not the teachers. (Granted the teachers on the Garfield trip did not do well but if procedures and protocols had been followed, the trip might have had a different outcome). It may be that SPS just wants to either wash its hands of field trips OR only day trips OR only the most organized teachers and chaperones can pull them off.
I don't know what parents could do to help if teachers feel overwhelmed by the effort to organize these trips. I worry that long-established trips will (somehow) continue but others may fall by the wayside.
Does it have to be a choice between safety and the ability for a teacher to plan and organize a field trip they believe will benefit students?
What are the issues?
- the official list of forms at the district website are gone (note: I could not find the webpage that describes what the district is doing BUT I put in "field trip" into Search and I found a 67-page document with all the forms. It is quite a formidable read (both because of format and length).
- according to my source, the official checklist is not complete, with multiple forms required have never existed (and may not exist at all)
- some teachers have been told that they need food handler permits
- the district wants to see maps/plans on how chaperones will account for all the students...4x a night
What a mess.
But frankly, it is a mess made at the hands of management, not the teachers. (Granted the teachers on the Garfield trip did not do well but if procedures and protocols had been followed, the trip might have had a different outcome). It may be that SPS just wants to either wash its hands of field trips OR only day trips OR only the most organized teachers and chaperones can pull them off.
I don't know what parents could do to help if teachers feel overwhelmed by the effort to organize these trips. I worry that long-established trips will (somehow) continue but others may fall by the wayside.
Does it have to be a choice between safety and the ability for a teacher to plan and organize a field trip they believe will benefit students?
Comments
- Formsdone
Anonymous, first, give yourself a name.
Second, I'm not talking about parent volunteers, I'm talking about the teachers/staff who organize the trip. I think that's pretty clear from the thread.
They can't, so they won't write about it.
This is just another example of the dysfunction of the District's senior management and central administration. They never had to change the policies at all. They only had to enforce the policies they had. But, since enforcing policies is directly contrary to their culture, they papered field trips to death instead.
Let's be honest, chaperones have been on field trips and they don't want certain students in their group because of unacceptable behaviors, lack of respect etc.
We also need to acknowledge that teachers spend a fair amount of time making chaperone assignments because certain children don't follow rules, fail to recognize authority etc. and chaperone assignments may be difficult.
How very, very JSIS. And now the kids at multiple high schools will lose.
Here's the deal. All the district had to do was insist administrators follow the paperwork and procedures that already existed.
This is insane.
DistrictWatcher
We NEED robust after school programs to take kids to arts and the parks and ... play intramural sports and ... AND we should hire our under employed fellow citizens to be coaches and chaperones and field trip peeps. DUH.
How many of you are old enough to remember the t.v. show "Happy Days", that late 70's foggy eyed ronnie-raygun view of the 50's? Can we try some
NewProgramming?
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2024727916_schoolsettlementxml.html
ST reader
Glad to hear that the Ingraham trip went well!
2)Chaperones can't stay up all night guarding windows and doors. They can't follow kids to make sure they're actually going to the loo and not the woods/beach/bf-gf's room.
3) If Teachers can get fired/sued over fieldtrips, then many will choose the safe option: no fieldtrips. Yes, the educational benefits are necessary, but so is paying mortgage & feeding their kids.
CCA
Schools need to have a good pool of chaperones.
My colleague and I used to stay up most of the night during the two nights of the high school field trips we went on. I would always come down with the flu.
I couldn't do it any more.
You have to have *more* than enough chaperones for the trip, not just people who will hang out for a while, but for the whole time.
It would be nice if an administrator came along as well.
--ModernSound