MONROE - Monroe High School's German exchange trip will remain scheduled for June after the school board earlier this month denied a request to move the 2016 biennial trip to spring break.
Monroe High School German teacher Kristin Bansley told the board the two-week trip may have to be canceled this year if it couldn't be changed to March because of scheduling conflicts with the staff who would be traveling with students to Germany.
Bansley said 16 students applied for the trip, but one of them will graduate by the end of this year and thus wouldn't be able to go if the trip is in June.
District Administrator Cory Hirsbrunner said she has the authority to make the call on whether or not to reschedule the trip but decided to bring the matter to the board given the controversy from a previous year.
One of the board's main concerns about a spring trip was that traveling students and two teachers would miss a week of school. Those students would be expected to make up any missed work. The students staying behind who take German would be left with substitute teachers for that week. Bansley said retired German teacher Karen Fowdy would be able to fill in.
Board clerk Amy Bazley said substitute teachers wouldn't provide as good a learning experience as the usual teachers would.
President Bob Erb cited his daughter's experience with a spring trip, which "put her in the hole" with her schoolwork.
"It's tough, especially when you're taking some tough classes, to miss a week of school," he said. "I don't like the precedent that programs now are pulling kids out of school for this length of time."
But board member Jim Plourde noted the experience might outweigh the missed schoolwork.
"I hear the arguments for the academics and so on, but then I guess to me it kind of comes back to ... is the experience in making a once-in-a-lifetime (trip) for some of these kids worth more than, you know, just kind of missing some school," Plourde said.
Bazley also expressed concern about how MHS administration would handle students in the athletic program drinking alcohol while in Germany - where the legal drinking age is 16 - and then returning to school mid-semester. She said the last time the trip happened during spring break, in 2012, "it really didn't go well," resulting in the switch to summer.
The motion failed at 4-4, with Plourde, Michael Boehme, Dan Bartholf and Les Bieneman voting to allow the spring trip. Mary Berger, Brian Keith, Bazley and Erb voted against it. Scott Schmidt was absent from the Dec. 14 board meeting.
The exchange trip could still be scheduled for June, but Hirsbrunner cautioned it could also be canceled entirely out of safety concerns. Some other districts across the state have canceled exchange trips in light of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, and some Monroe parents have expressed discomfort in a trip to Germany at this time, Hirsbrunner said.
Monroe High School German teacher Kristin Bansley told the board the two-week trip may have to be canceled this year if it couldn't be changed to March because of scheduling conflicts with the staff who would be traveling with students to Germany.
Bansley said 16 students applied for the trip, but one of them will graduate by the end of this year and thus wouldn't be able to go if the trip is in June.
District Administrator Cory Hirsbrunner said she has the authority to make the call on whether or not to reschedule the trip but decided to bring the matter to the board given the controversy from a previous year.
One of the board's main concerns about a spring trip was that traveling students and two teachers would miss a week of school. Those students would be expected to make up any missed work. The students staying behind who take German would be left with substitute teachers for that week. Bansley said retired German teacher Karen Fowdy would be able to fill in.
Board clerk Amy Bazley said substitute teachers wouldn't provide as good a learning experience as the usual teachers would.
President Bob Erb cited his daughter's experience with a spring trip, which "put her in the hole" with her schoolwork.
"It's tough, especially when you're taking some tough classes, to miss a week of school," he said. "I don't like the precedent that programs now are pulling kids out of school for this length of time."
But board member Jim Plourde noted the experience might outweigh the missed schoolwork.
"I hear the arguments for the academics and so on, but then I guess to me it kind of comes back to ... is the experience in making a once-in-a-lifetime (trip) for some of these kids worth more than, you know, just kind of missing some school," Plourde said.
Bazley also expressed concern about how MHS administration would handle students in the athletic program drinking alcohol while in Germany - where the legal drinking age is 16 - and then returning to school mid-semester. She said the last time the trip happened during spring break, in 2012, "it really didn't go well," resulting in the switch to summer.
The motion failed at 4-4, with Plourde, Michael Boehme, Dan Bartholf and Les Bieneman voting to allow the spring trip. Mary Berger, Brian Keith, Bazley and Erb voted against it. Scott Schmidt was absent from the Dec. 14 board meeting.
The exchange trip could still be scheduled for June, but Hirsbrunner cautioned it could also be canceled entirely out of safety concerns. Some other districts across the state have canceled exchange trips in light of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, and some Monroe parents have expressed discomfort in a trip to Germany at this time, Hirsbrunner said.