Trustee Dave McRae offers suggestions that may end up in the
hands of staff
Gilroy – A recent list of suggested field trip policy changes from Gilroy Unified School District’s School Board Trustee Dave McRae may mean teachers, administration and staff members will revisit their roles in future field trip approvals.
Principals and teachers are in charge of making regulations that determine how board policies are used, such as setting a minimum grade point average students must meet to participate in extra-curricular field trips. McRae’s suggestions focus specifically on academics, which could lead to board policy changes, but more likely will lead to regulation changes at schools.
The field trip policy was called into question following the Gilroy High School cheerleaders request to miss three days of class in order to perform at the National Football League Pro Bowl in Hawaii. The request sparked debate about how much class time missed was too much and if extra-curricular activity trips were on the same level as academic trips.
“I tried to step back from the three days versus six days debate that we had when the cheerleaders went to Hawaii and see if I could find a different approach to field trips,” McRae said. “What I found was that the key for many schools isn’t the amount of field trips or days missed, but that there should be a focus on individual academic performance. The change is in the attitude of how you approach the trips.”
McRae used Newsweek’s 2004 list of top high-performance schools in the United States and called various schools or checked their districts’ policies online. He said that though many schools had varying policies, several schools put high emphasis on making sure students displayed a solid academic performance before being permitted to go on field trips. Students that do perform well academically and are part of extra-curricular activities are encouraged to participate in competitions, sports and other events even if they may result in a loss of class time.
“I think that it’s important that the issue not be the number of days missed, but rather whether the students have the right attitude,” said McRae, whose term on the board will end in January. “Students can get two Ds but still meet the 2.0 grade point average to be on the football team. Well, if they’ve got two Ds they probably shouldn’t be missing all those classes when they travel with the team. And students need to be held responsible for the work they miss to go on a field trip or special event.”
Pat Midtgaard, president of the school board, said that they will take McRae’s suggestions into consideration when the field trip policy is revisited, most likely in the new year with the newly elected board.
“The policy has to be broad, but administrative regulations explain how the policy should be implemented,” Midtgaard said. “Things like students’ grades and making up work all fall under those regulations. So, it could very well be that those need to be revisited as well. But that would be up to administrators and staff.”
The field trip policy subcommittee is comprised of Midtgaard, trustee Rhoda Bress and GUSD Superintendent Edwin Diaz. When the subcommittee revisits the policy, Midtgaard said they may also look at other schools’ policies, but they are unlikely to use high-performance schools. Rather, they would likely look at districts similar to GUSD in size and demographics, such as the Milpitas school district.
Diaz said the suggestions offered an “interesting perspective” and he was sure the new school board would talk about the suggestions in January.
Trustee Tom Bundros agreed that McRae’s suggestions will probably come up when the policy is discussed, but he is also concerned with the schools McRae used as models. He pointed out that some of the schools don’t allow any field trips, and some that allow many trips also have longer school years or longer school days.
“I’m also concerned that our policy needs to work for all different grade levels and I don’t know if these suggestions translate that way,” Bundros said. “But I think the point of those suggestions was to ask us to look at the policy holistically, and I’m willing to do that.”
McRae said he didn’t consider his suggestions the final solution to the questions surrounding the field trip policy, but he wanted to offer a different way to look at the policy before his term ended.
“I think a couple of board members were interested in what I had to say, and I think those that wrote the original policy bristled at it,” McRae said. “My term will be over soon, but this is important and I thought this information might help after I’m gone.”
