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School trip ratio policy is examined
By BARBARA BEHRENDT, Times Staff Writer INVERNESS -- How many adults does it take to make sure that children on a field trip are safe? To some extent, that might depend on whom you ask. The School Board this week was asked to approve a routine out-of-state field trip for the Crystal River High School band, which is traveling to Williamsburg, Va., in March. But the discussion turned instead to whether the district's policy of requiring one chaperone for every 10 students was adequate. "Everyone is concerned about safety," said board member Patience Nave, who questioned whether the policy should be updated to require more adults on trips. In the recent past, the only problems on field trips involved students, explained School Board attorney Richard "Spike" Fitzpatrick. "The problems have been from the conduct of our students who get a little bit too big for their britches and get in trouble," he said. Recently, board member Ginger Bryant said she got a call from a woman who wondered if the board will continue to send children to New York and Washington since the terrorist attacks. The board recently approved another field trip to New York and plans are still in place for the annual Safety Patrol trip to Washington, D.C. "I told her to trust God" and make her own decision whether to send her child on a field trip, Bryant said. Board member Carol Snyder noted that if violence and terrorism are the fear, "then one on one isn't going to keep them safe." She said that she is happy with the 10:1 ratio policy and noted that sometimes on field trips, it is the chaperones and not the students that cause the problem. "Sometimes children do things. I just want to make sure that our children are safe," Nave said. Snyder said the key is for the district to make a good effort to monitor children on field trips. Superintendent David Hickey said he agrees that even a one-on-one arrangement doesn't guarantee safety. And although Nave was the only board member who voiced interest in seeing the standard of 10:1 re-examined, he said he would talk to his principals at an upcoming meeting to find out if they have an opinion on the issue. Changes in the policy might be discussed based on the age of the students, he said. Fitzpatrick added that some types of field trips might require a smaller number of students per chaperone and that the principals could discuss that idea. Bryant said the fear about going to New York or Washington seemed strange, especially because there had been an episode in Tampa just this weekend with a student crashing an airplane into a Tampa skyscraper. "You can't go to Tampa, either," she said. "You can go to Ozello, maybe." In other action: The board accepted the latest fiscal audit, which finance director Sam Hurst said is a very good report on the district's fiscal health. State auditors criticized the district for overspending the budget by nearly $102,000 and for not having enough control over journal entries. Hurst explained that those were minor criticisms that the district will work on. He also noted that none of the past audit criticisms had been repeated. "Hopefully next time we'll have a perfect one," he said. In a closed session, the School Board expelled seven students, bringing the total for the current school year to 35. The expulsions included five ninth-graders (three girls and two boys) from Crystal River High School; one male Citrus High School ninth-grader; and one male eighth-grade student from Inverness Middle School. All were for violations of the zero tolerance policy for drugs and alcohol.
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