As sustainability education is rooted in building sustainable community, gaining experiences in and being able to contribute directly to the community is an essential practice of sustainable education. Unfortunately, our schooling system – schedules, transportation, focus on testing, and general dominant paradigm – doesn’t yet allow for easy use of the community as an education resource.
It seems confusion abounds when it comes to field trip policy in the Santa Fe Public Schools. Teachers have expressed concerns about getting different messages from different administrators in the District about what is acceptable practice when it comes to leaving campus for educational experiences. In a recent conversation, Superintendent Bobbie Gutierrez stated, and the School Board Policy confirms, it is really up to the discretion of the teacher and/or their principal on how many field trips you can take in a year. There is no Board policy which limits the number of field trips teachers can take in a year. However, field trips do need to meet the same standards as classroom instruction – that’s to say, they should be aligned to standards, and meet curriculum needs. Other constraints on field trips include funding, which in these times of extreme budget cuts mean that very few field trips are being funded by the District, if any. Partners in Education grants are available for field trips, but their funding for 2009-2010 is also more limited than year’s past. The State Parks Division provide funding through grants for field trips to the State Parks and the use of public transportation (see below) could certainly help offset costs of transportation.
Find the full text on Field Trips in Santa Fe Public Schools Board of Education Policy Manual, Fieldtrips and Student Activity Travel, Policy #477
Using Public Transportation for Field Trips
As New Mexico seeks to remedy a large budget deficit all sectors of government, including school districts, are searching for ways to save costs and cut expenditures. At the same time many schools in the Santa Fe Public Schools District (SFPS) are seeking ways to become more sustainable, which includes reducing their school’s overall carbon footprint. Fortunately, SFPS has a public transportation policy in place that could both help ease budget concerns and forward each school’s mission to become more eco-friendly. The only problem with this policy is that it seems to have been lost in translation somewhere between the administrative offices and the teachers’ classrooms. This article will seek to clear the confusion about SFPS’s public transportation policy, so that teachers, students, and parents can take advantage of a virtually free and eco-friendly mode of transportation.
As I’m sure all teachers know, one of the most difficult parts of a field trip is coordinating the travel. Many teachers have attested that coordinating the details with the SFPS Transportation Department can be trying due to their daily scheduled routes. As teachers seek alternate modes of transporting their students on field trips, they will be happy to learn about a Board of Education of Santa Fe Public Schools policy adopted on August 4, 2009 in which the Board “encourages the use of public transportation (i.e. busses, trains, etc.) for groups of employees, students, or others groups…”
The policy does include some restrictions including clauses not allowing for the use of public transportation if the activity involved exceeds three hours roundtrip, will travel in excess of 75 miles one-way, or if the activity includes an overnight stay for the students. Although there are restrictions, many teachers, including Judy Graham, sixth grade teacher at Alvord Elementary, who took her class to the Community Farm on a public bus, was pleased with the experience saying “overall it worked great” and “my students loved the bus.”
An added benefit of using public transportation for field trips is that according to the Santa Fe Trails Transit System webpage youth through 18 years old ride free. Essentially this means any class in the SFPS system should be able to ride free excluding teachers and chaperones, who can purchase a day pass for only $2 per person.
Utilizing the SFPS public transportation policy will certainly take time for planning, because teachers will need to know exactly where the class will meet the bus and how close the bus will take the class to their final destination, but the cost and environmental benefits are certainly worth it.
Find the full text and permission slip in the Santa Fe Public Schools Board of Education Policy Manual, Use of Public Transportation, Policy #361.
