Gilroy Unified School Board trustees didn’t come up with the “magic answer” regarding missed instructional days due to field trips, extracurricular competitions and athletic activities, but they’re taking a balanced approached to the challenge of curtailing lost school time while ensuring their students receive a well-rounded education.
Field trip policy was agendized for discussion during Thursday’s school board meeting out of concern for the shortened school year, which saw five instructional days axed from the calendar due to state budget cuts. A rumored possible 15 school days could be eliminated in 2012-13 due to massive state budget cuts, which could mean anywhere from $3.5 to $8.5 million in cuts for GUSD. The fact field trips cause teachers to miss instructional days has also been a concern, according to GUSD Superintendent Debbie Flores.
The School Board decided Thursday to continue studying the correlation between missed school days and academic performance, in addition to placing a heightened emphasis on mitigating lost instructional minutes as much as possible. Trustees did not seem to be in favor of putting a cap on the number of field trips allowed per student.
GUSD Superintendent Debbie Flores urged trustees not to put a limit on students participating in extracurricular activities such as athletics, band, choir, drama, etc.; but to “thoroughly scrutinize field trips” and confirm students are departing class at the latest possible time needed to get ready for their respective activity.
“I think we could do a better job next year monitoring this,” she said.
Board Trustee Fred Tovar said he doesn’t know the best answer to ensuring students get as much time in the classroom as possible, “but we need to start by looking and clarifying the (field trip) policy.”
When it comes to evaluating field trips, however, Board President Tom Bundros maintains, “it’s not that black and white.”
The School Board will have to rely on administrators to use their best judgment, Bundros said. Trustees want to protect classroom time, but dually encourage and support extracurricular activities – and in that sense, “we won’t be able to make a cookbook out of this thing,” he resolved.
Trustees said they would be interested in hearing more feedback from teachers. John Perales, principal of Christopher High School, suggested bringing in a handful of student-athletes for a focus group that could provide some insight to the issue.
A concern for “field trip discrimination” was also discussed in length. As pointed out by CHS drama instructor Kate Booth, “I don’t know why (sports-related absences) are unquestionably OK, but the rest of us have to ask for special permission and hope that they see the value in what we’re doing.”
Perales acknowledged this dilemma Thursday during the meeting.
“It’s something that we struggle with,” he told the board. “It’s a really difficult question for me to answer.”
Given the responsibility to ensure that field trips don’t just “loosely” align with curriculum standards, Perales explained that administrators are a bit “gun shy” and “highly critical of field trips.”
GHS Principle Marco Sanchez also underlined the number of variables that come into play when a school is attempting to develop its athletic schedule, such as the fact some schools don’t have outdoor lighting in their soccer or baseball fields. Thus, there’s a time crunch to get the game started at a certain time, he said.
Trustees Jaime Rosso and Dom Payne said they lean toward an “incremental approach,” rather than take any “dramatic actions” in the effort to minimize instructional loss.
“We’re being squeezed down in our year, but that’s not the fault of the student, and why should they lose out on these trips and the educational opportunities?” said Payne. “It’s always going to be challenging.”
Out of the seven-member School Board, Trustee Rhoda Bress displayed the most cautionary outlook.
“Things have improved so much in this area,” she said. “But it’s a difficult question to answer because it can vary by subject and by student. At what point do we say to a student, ‘this is going to make a difference in your academics if you miss ‘x’ amount of days and ‘x’ amount of hours?’ This needs to be more studied. We need to be asking teachers what the impact is….I’m not questioning the value of field trips, but I’ve always believed we can’t do everything and academics has to be our first priority.”
Bress said she wants to know how much instructional time a student can lose before there’s an impact.
“My children could not afford to lose one day,” she asserted. “That’s how we need to be approaching this. Those field trips all seemed of value, but academics still have to be our first priority and we can’t make promises that we’re not providing support for.”
The next regular School Board meeting will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday at district offices, located at 7810 Arroyo Circle.
