Lisa Glynn and Andrea Casterton were winners Monday night, while Barbara Judd didn’t fare so well.

Tuesday, July 11, 2000

Lisa Glynn and Andrea Casterton were winners Monday night, while Barbara Judd didn’t fare so well.

Glynn and Casterton received the Austin Board of Education’s permission to allow a ninth-grade American history honors class to visit Washington, D.C.

Judd, an Austin High School Spanish teacher who advises the Austin High School National Honor Society Chapter, was rejected in her attempt to send four officers to a national NHS convention in Orlando, Fla.

The two requests sparked lengthy debate for the school board members and, perhaps, a feeling of deja vu.

At the January board meeting, when four newly elected board members took their seats for the first time, a request to allow the AHS girls softball team to go to Florida to practice for the upcoming season was rejected.

The absence of a written policy to guide the school board members in making a decision was blamed, in part, for the rejection.

Seven months later, the school board still is without a policy, but Monday night, that wasn’t necessary for one field trip request to be approved and another to be rejected.

Glynn and Casterton want to take 42 freshmen students to that nation’s capital and other area historic sites March 28 through April 2, 2001.

Their honors American history I class is a new class with 50 students registered.

The focus of the class will be the Revolutionary and Civil wars.

According to the teacher’s presentation, the trip would be funded by having the students write applications for grants, donations from local service clubs and fund-raisers with the student picking up the remainder of the fees at a maximum of $350 per student.

Larry Andersen was the first board member to register approval.

"I totally support this trip," Andersen said.

Amy Baskin, another board member, said, "I think it’s a great trip idea, but I’m really concerned about the precedent we would be setting."

Baskin said approving the trip would be an invitation to every other class to schedule its own field trip.

"I’d like to set this precedent," Andersen said. "These two teachers are willing to take their students beyond the traditional four walls of learning."

Bev Nordby reminded her peers on the school board: "We had this same problem last January, when another field trip request was made and now we still don’t have a policy."

School board member Bruce Loveland said he agreed: a policy would help the decision-making process by the school board.

"It’s not fair to the board to have to pick and choose from among all the good ideas that come before us," he said.

Baskin said families, businesses, clubs and organizations are inundated with fund-raising requests from school students each year.

"The community is rebelling. Every team, every activity has a fund-raiser it seems," Baskin said.

Board member Kathy Green said the teachers indicated they were pursuing "creative fund-raising" ideas such as writing grant applications and that would make the process one of learning for the students.

Nordby worried aloud that the process could become exclusive and only those students who could afford to go would be able to go, but Glynn said a "safety net" in the form of a scholarship fund for indigent students was being considered.

Board Chairman David Simonson recalled joining his twin daughters in 1995 on an AHS concert band trip to the nation’s capital and said it was a positive experience for students and the parent-chaperones who accompanied them.

He was willing to endorse writing a policy that set "minimum standards" for such trips.

When the vote was taken, it passed 4-3 with Baskin, Nordby and Loveland casting "nay" votes.

When it was Judd’s turn to address the school board, she confessed, "That’s a tough act to follow."

Judd requested the school board’s approval to send four AHS officers-elect into the NHS chapter to a national convention at Orlando, Fla., Nov. 9-12. The cost: an estimated $610 per student.

According to Judd, no AHS chapter has attended a state or national convention, and she believes the experience will build leadership skills, improve the local chapter’s community service networking and develop new strategies. The discussion didn’t last long.

The board members said the NHS chapter should seek to attend a state convention first and pursue attending a national convention later.

Judd’s request was rejected by a 0-7 vote, but the board members encouraged her to return with a request for the NHS to be represented at a state convention.

Monday night’s meeting represented a departure both in scheduling and location of a school board meeting.

The meeting began at 6:30 p.m. in the council chambers at Austin Municipal Building.

Both Simonson and Superintendent Dr. James A. Hess expressed their appreciation to the Austin City Council for the use of the facilities. Monday night’s meeting will be televised on local origination cable Channel 6 at 8:30 p.m. Thursday.