Re: School Board Problems
 

Also does anyone have a list of how FIRST matches up to subject areas in the school. This might help if we can show that while they are actually out of school the are not out of the learning experience.

Matthew[/quote]

I just wrote a bunch and it disappeared. Here I go again.
I sounds like you have a major communication problem. I feel your frustration, as last year we had one of those bottomed out years where everything seemed to go wrong, including having all out of state travel canceled at the last minutes due to the war. There went Philly....

Make it a priority to request a presentation with the school board and superintendent in the late spring so they know what you are about.

We had the head of our school board (and president-elect of all the school boards in Maryland) write us a testimonial this year. It is wonderful and talks about what a fantastic learning experience FIRST is, and he addresses various skills that are learned. I would be happy to email it to you if you feel it might be helpful in the short run.

Re: School Board Problems
 

Matthew, you can be nice to the school board; or you can force them into letting the kids go.

The problem with school boards and FIRST is that they see it as a vacation club. When I was on my high school team in Enfield CT we couldn't get as much funding as we would like because the board members didn't see the educational value.... I'm not sure if Buzz ever fixed that problem.

Here's what I suggest: explain the program and give an elaborate presentation about FIRST. Explain why it's important. The build season creates the candle for technology and the competitions ignite the inspiration.

If that doesn't work have a parent from the team represent their child and come with a paper signed by all the other parents. The paper should say something to the effect, "Us parents find FIRST of educational value. We believe they should be desmissed from classes on competiotion days."

If that doesn't work- teachers can take sick days and so can the students. It's not the best option, but at least you'll be at the regional.

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you can knock one day off the trip by having an advance team go on wednesday night, uncrate the machine on thursday and have it inspected - that way, most of your team could stay in classes thrusday, leave late in the afternoon, and be there friday morning for the beginning of the seeding matches - you would only need a handfull of students there thrusday morning.

Do you have a corporate sponsor? if so, does the school board have any concept of how much time and money they donate to this program?

Does your school have football or basketball teams? are they only allowed to play in one game each year?!??!

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Ken, you're absolutely right. All through my life I have seen sports heros walk out of class early becuase they have to ice up before a game. It makes me sad :(

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They best you can probably do is attend a school board meeting. Ask your superintendent if you could possibly put on a demo for you school board and the community to see. Every year we attend 1 meeting just to let them accually see what goes on!

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Matthew,

Here's what we did: Get the school board President to go with you to an event. We did that our second year and ever since, we've never had a problem getting board approval for our actions.

Do you know if any of the other Huntsville City Schools are having a similar problem? I think Team #34 (Butler High School) is going to 2 regionals (but I could be wrong.)

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Our first competiton is at Wayne State so we just have like filed trip exsue for that and it's only 2 days. Then for San Jose we have 4 days exsued. The Championship is during spring break and we come back late either Sunday night or early Monday morning. They told us that the school dristict only approves so many days that we can be off. But they really don't like us going anywhere for some reason. If any group wants to go on a filed trip like for community service they don't want us to go, so we just get it approved with the principle.

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Being a FIRST mentor for 2 years now and a former school board member, I can speak to all sides of this issue. A couple of questions before I jump in. Does Alabama have curriculum requirements established by the state board of education? How much, if any, funding does your district provide to your team? Do you have a rival school that participates in FIRST? Do your athletic teams get extra time off to travel to state or regional championships?

After I was elected to the board, the teacher who organizes our FIRST team invited me to attend a FIRST regional in Toronto Canada of all places. As soon as I set foot in the Hershey Center in Mississauga, I was hooked. I knew I had to be involved in FIRST. (Key #1 - Invite a current or former school board member or perhaps your school district superintendent to attend a regional. If they see it, they too will love it!!!)

It didn't take long for me to figure out that the FIRST process hit on many key points of our district curriculum. In PA our state dept of education has established curriculum regulations. FIRST robotics hit on a number of areas of science and math curriculum. (Key #2 - If Alabama has similar regs, show how FIRST can help meet some of those regs.)

We (Millcreek Twp School District) are a suburban school district. We compete in all things with the city district (Erie, PA) we surround. They have a FIRST team, so you better bet we will have a FIRST team. (Key #3 - Do any of your local rivals have a FIRST team? Does your district want to be left behind?)

How much funding does your team receive from your district? In this era of tight budgets (from local to federal), your team may be viewed as an unnecessary expense. If you are or can become financially self sufficient, that is a very big plus.

If I can be of any help, please contact me and we will make your school board see the error of their ways!!!!

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We are allowed to miss as much as we want. We go to 2 regionals and nationals. We perform presentations, and travel out of town, during school, all the time. We have 11 students that will miss as much as 10 days of school and some (myself included) miss as much as 14 days, all school excused. How do we do it?

1) Students are not allowed to travel if they have a D or F on grade checks. The administration, board, other teachers, and parents love this.

2) We have taken, all expenses paid, the superintendent, 2 principles, and a boeard member to nationals over the past 4 years.

3) We have perfromed school board presentations and robot demos.

4) We have helped start 8 FLL teams,in our district, over the past year.

5) We have included other classes/clubs in the school in the operations of the team.

6) We do not ask for any money from the district. We are 100% self sufficient and "FREE" to them. We are all the good of a team and none of the negative.

Heck, this year our district gave us $2,500 and the board is going to pay for the superintendent and a vice principal to attend nationals. We also have a robotics class now.

It has taken 6 years to achieve this level of support. But if you are professional in everything you do, you will get there. If you need anything else, let me know and I will be glad to help.

Shawn
Teacher/ Team 60

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Matthew....what is the position of the HS principal regarding the second regional? I am not familiar with your school size and participation in outside activities, but I would bet that other clubs, teams, etc....will miss more than six days devoted to their respective activity. As the school administrator, this issue is my responsibility for Team 343...not the teachers. I would discuss this with the principal, teachers, and parents...then request to appear before the school board to make a request for them to reconsider their position. One thing for sure....as a high school principal, I have to link the Robotics program to the curriculum...we have implemented a Pre-engineering curriculum (Project Lead the Way) in conjunction with the University of South Carolina. This curriculum is linked to the State standards...Thus, competition is part of it. Generally speaking, parents tend to exert the right pressure...to bring about change. By the way...we certainly want you to attend the Palmetto Regional...it is going to be great...brand new facility, lots of energy and a great make-up of teams competing...most from out-of-state.

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To answer some of the questions we are not funded by our school system. We have had to raise all of our funds by ourselves. I do not get a supplement for doing robotics but I do it out of having fun and knowing what the students can get out of it. I do have a supportive prinicpal that is helping.

We are a technical high school that pulls from the other five high schools in our county system. We struggle with the fact we do not have the high school community to help support our program. We have been working on communication of our program and it looks like we have a ways to go. I am compiling information on how much the sponsors have given and how much money our kids have raised to pay for these two competitions. We are fighting to go to this second regional and at the same time trying to find the final funding for the bus travel which as right now we are short. I am hoping that the school board will notice how much work has been put into this robotics team and how many buisnesses have supported our endeavor. I wish there was a closer regional that I could take our school board members so they can see that it is not small robots moving in a high school gym but a professional competiton where over 800 high school students and engineers come together to but theory into practice.

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Is it a requirement that the students attend your technical high school to be a member of Team 1028? Our technical center coordinates Team 343 that is composed of students from four high schools, but they do not have to attend the center to be a member of the team. Many students are involved in many things and subjects that prohibit them from attending...not they they don't want to, but just that they do not have the time. Point is...Team 343 represents the four high schools and not just the technical center. Therefore, I have the support and encouragement of an additional four principals...lots of say in what goes on. What is the price that you are struggling to raise for the bus fare to go to the second regional?

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We also represent the entire Madison County school system. most of our students are from our tech center but we do have others from the high schools that do not take any classes at our school. It is open to any student in Madison County.

Currently we are short around $3000 for the bus fare from our school to South Carolina. We have raised all the other funds needed to attend.

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sanddrag Quote:
Originally Posted by Matthew_H
How do the other school systems justify the two competitions to the school board.

You're asking the wrong question. Instead try thinking about "How do school systems justify the cost of FIRST?"


With our school boards we go to the meetings where they put our trip approvals on the agenda, we show up with our team shirts on so they notice us, and by showing up it shows them that we care and we would like approval and they give it to us. And to sanddrag a lot of schools don't have to justify the cost of FIRST because they don't give any monetary support to the teams. I know RAGE for one gets no support monetarily from any of our 5 schools. Rockville High School does however allow us to build at that school.

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Good news. It looks like that after further review our school board is going to allow us to go to South Carolina. It is not offical yet but we have talked with most of them. They did not understand how much money that sponsors have put into the Ubergeeks. Thank you all for you ideas they really did help. We are going to try and make sure this communication problem will not happen again.