Field Trips

Photographer: Logan Houghtelling

Students board a bus on the morning of Nov. 17 to go on field trip to San Jose State University.

Field Trips Have Resumed

Teachers discuss new policies for field trips

By Jazmin Quintero-Gaviño

On Nov. 10 Junior Sakeena Saber joined Developmental Psychology of Adolescents on a field trip to a rope courses in Santa Cruz, for Saber it was her first field trip since spring of 2018.

“It’s been so long since I have had such a fun school day” said Saber.

From March of 2020 to the spring of 2022 there were almost no field trips at AHS. Since the spring of 2022 groups at AHS have slowly begun to restart going on field trips. As they have begun this process they have been greeted with some new policies from the district that govern the planning of these trips. Among the differences in this new policy there are changes to the process of getting buses and parent chaperones.

Future Academy co-lead Kay Zimmerman said that in the past teachers largely were responsible for the organizing of field trips.

“In the past, when there was someone organizing a field trip like a teacher who would research the place. We figured out where we were traveling and then we would find the bus, create a contract with the bus, turn in the paperwork to our school office, and then all of that will get turned in to the district and they would do the approvals and process everything” said Zimmerman.

Future’s Academy co-lead Brian Fredin added that this process was relatively quick and easy “It was very quick, maybe 45 minutes per field trip, you first have to book a paid trip to a company. And once you have a date, what we would do is we would contact a bus company, the order of us, they would give us a quote, we put our request into the district. And since we have money through the small learning communities, they would pay for that. And then the bus would show up on the day we needed a field trip.“

Zimmerman said the process for getting buses has become significantly more challenging for teachers planning field trips.

“We cannot choose our own buses. We have to turn in the paperwork for the field trip itself,and then we have to sort of just wait and hope that the bus is being ordered appropriately. We hope that it’s been approved, we don’t get information in a timely fashion, about whether it’s approved or not. So the approval process is more mysterious and then it takes a long time.”

She added that the changes to the chaperone requirements have also made it difficult for teachers to get enough chaperone support for these trips

“They’re in the process of changing the rules for parent chaperones and are going to start requiring parents to get fingerprinted in order to be a chaperone. But that hasn’t been officially established yet. So right now, we’re just not allowed to have parent chaperones. So it’s just there’s a lot of transition going on behind field trips. And so it’s making it really hard for teachers to smoothly and confidently plan our trips.”

In spite of all the challenges teachers and staff have still managed to put on field trips this year. The Future academy has gone on field trips to a ropes course and saint marys In addition to the Future Academy, AHS students have gone on field trips like college visits to San José State University and San Francisco State University with the Career Center.

Senior Andrew Le says that having field trips back feels refreshing.

“Having field trips again feels like a refreshing change of pace because usual classes every day get repetitive. College field trips in particular are a really positive experience in my opinion because they can remind you of why you want to keep working hard in usual classes, because by studying hard you can earn a place in the schools you’re visiting.”

In spite of the challenges Zimmerman is hopeful that it will be easier to plan field trips here at AHS.

“And also, it can happen, it can work. You know, it just feels harder right now.” Zimmerman said.

“I’m hoping that once everything gets finalized at the district level, that they will create some kind of handbook or guide set of five lines for the proper steps for doing a field trip so that anyone that’s able to plan a field trip can do it in a timely fashion.”