Re: School Board Problems
 

Number 1 is the same with us expect instead of a D or F it's an E and you can't get lower then a 2.5.

Re: School Board Problems
 

Huh. We had an upset recently, and both high schools got a wake up call about how much time, money, effort mentors give, and the dedication of students and parents from both schools.

Then I learned that the RUHS school board was motivated on their own to ask that our robotics' summercamp banner on the school fence be given prominence over the recreation dept banners, so it was moved at their request.

Re: School Board Problems
 

I'm glad to see this thread and now knowing our team isn't alone with similar issues. I was asked by our teams main advisor to post this on here. What we what to know is if team 237 can unify and work with other teams so we're (we meaning all teams with similar issues) aren't stepped on. As Jessica mentioned in post # 12 in this thread " we are dealing with a difficult one". Jess and I are talking about the same school board.
I have a few questions for other teams but first I'll give some background on my team.
Team 237 Sie-H2O-Bots was formed in 1998 and is based out of the Watertown Connecticut high school. We currently have roughly 30 students and 14 mentors. Two of the mentors are teachers at this school, one of them is the teams main contact. Our team is 100% self funded, no money from the board of ed or town for that matter supports our team. Our team is also a 501c3 organization (tax exempt) and has been since it's creation. The problem is the board of ed does not and has never reconized our team. We pay for the schools use, meaning custodial coverage, from our own team budget. Our team relies strictly on donations and when you're handed a $2000.00 bill at the end of the six weeks it hurts. Sports and any other organizations get to use the building for free. Our team also has had over $100,000 in equipment and services donated to the school because of our team. This includes machinery for the tech ed department, computers, 10 stations of Solid Works for the cad room, and countless other stuff. We got all this stuff for the school to use also, it is not strictly for our team. We also have had problems where they almost weren't going to allow our team to travel. Students have to keep passing grades to be on our team. We have countless other problems and could go on here forever but I won't.
What I also want to ask is:

Does your team build your robot at your school?

Do you have restrictions on building use?

What procedures do you have to go through to use this building?

Also if you do use the school,

Do you have to pay to use school facilities?

What amount of monetary support is your school providing your team?

How do you handle donations made to the school on behalf of the robot team?

Any insight, help, and/or answers are greatly appreciated. Our team feels we have more than our share of red tape. We also feel we have jumped through more hoops than Barnum and Baily.

Re: School Board Problems
 

Jay, will you be coming to NJ? I have lots to say but need to get ready for tomorrow. Otherwise, I will post after this weekend.
If you will be in NJ, find me at Team 007.
robomom aka , Jenny

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Unfortunately I will not be at Trenton, I have to work. My team will be there though. If you want to you can speak to other members of my team and our teams main advisor, Carll, will be there. I am interested in what you have to say. It wasn't until I saw this thread and mentioned it to my team did we realize we weren't alone with issues concerning school boards. We also always invite members of the school board to attend our meetings but it's rare if they show up or even take interest.

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Yah, please come over and talk to us. I will be there and i will help you find Carll, the team contact, and Barbara, the other teacher on the team or ill talk with you. Whatever you feel compfortable with.

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We get no funding from district or ed foundations. We are 501c3 org. We don't pay for school's use. We build the robot out of the school's building. We're restricted to a small area downstairs, can spread into construction technology area when school's out but must "clean back" to our area at end of robotics day, school wouldn't let us use any of their computers, thus our team didn't have computers til sponsor lent them to us a couple of years ago. We used to have school official open the building every time, but they've learned to trust us with a key now. All money donations to our team are handled by a school foundation. All equipment donations are kept in our small area.

Re: School Board Problems
 

I am the team leader and teacher for team 1083.

Does your team build your robot at your school? - YES!

- I have a code so that we can work on weekends, and when the school is not normally open. We are allowed to work at the school until 9pm; We were given special permission to stay at the school over night a few times, and work until 11pm other days

Do you have to pay to use school facilities?We do not have to pay for school facilities unless the school is closed. (We have to pay for custodial use when we host our tournamentt during the summer)

Luckily for us, my administrator is on the board for the reginal committee, and is very supportive of having the team. He does a lot of the "fighting" for us.

What amount of monetary support is your school providing your team?
Last year, our school principal wanted to start the team, so she gave us $10,000 to get started; this year we did not get anything

How do you handle donations made to the school on behalf of the robot team?
We have an internal account at the school, and I deposit all of the checks we get as donations. I write a receipt for the donor, and just deposit the checks. It is like having a little bank inside of the school I can then write Purchase Orders on the money we have in our account.

I hope this helps. Belive me, we run into a lot of red tape. It took a lot of convincing for the school to allow students to work past 11pm on a school night. We gave a lot of presentations (the students did) and it has been a good experience so far.

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I'm going to do three things: Answer your questions, write up an explanation of how OUR team operates, and then try to relate that to what you can do.

Do we build our robot at our school?
Yes, but this is the first year we have been graced with such a privledge. We've been around for 4 years, and we have jumped many many hoops to get our on-campus building (which I actually like less than the previous alternatives ... it is tiny!) The first two years we had a room at our corporate sponsor's location, last year we lost that sponsor and managed to borrow some space in the back of a warehouse.

As for the other questions about the school building, we do not pay for it and there are few restrictions on it, other than we must use the standard student parking, which is quite a walk (there is only faculty parking near the building).

Our school system provides no money directly to the team, however they do pay an undisclosed stipend to the teachers that lead the team (they do this for all major clubs). And yes, our school system allows the donations made specifically to our team to remain in our control.

By no means has it always been this way. Here's the general saga of Robotics at Arab High School: When it first started, it was competition with other school systems. Our superintendant wanted us to be the "technology powerhouse" of the county and refused to let us mentor or attempt to start other teams. It has taken until this year to break this mentality within the higher-ups. This year we finally managed to get a team started at our "football rival" high school, and we have mentored them successfully. It was not until we gave a presentation to a group of prominent county leaders who were very impressed with our collaboration that our principals and superintendant saw the benefits of this mentorship.

Up until this year, there was a general notion among the school board, principals and superintendants that our team didn't really provide the learning that we claimed. They thought that our team was nothing but engineer-driven with kids watching. (Boy were they wrong.) We proved them wrong in that regard this year -- we lost ALL of our corporate sponsors (NASA and PMI), yet I think our robot is the most competitive it has ever been. This year's robot is 100% student built and only one engineer has ever set foot into our building (the parent of one of our team members).

It is only now that they really see the educational benefits of our program. We used to be nothing more than a source of bragging rights over the other school systems.

It is imperative that you convince your school board of the educational value of FIRST. GET THEM TO A REGIONAL! PAY THEIR WAY! I recognize how hard this is, none of our principals or superintendants have ever come to a regional.

Recognizing this difficulty, this year we have invited a member of the local newspaper to accompany us to regionals and nationals. He has promised us a spread filled with details of his experience. We hope that this will be a good influence on the school administration that refuses to come to competition. (If you want a copy when it's published, I'll gladly send you one).

In conclusion, I can't imagine why any school would not want to support FIRST if they really knew what it is. The problem is that many administrators and ignorant and apathetic. Figure out how to break through that, and you'll be on your way.

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hey! ive been reading this whole thing, nervous about the fact that before today no one spoke to the school board about the one regional that team 1389 is attending (chesapeake). today i found out about it and it turns out this is what we are doing...

-every student gets a note signed by parents saying theyre allowed to go to the competition and miss 2 school days for it.
-attendance office gives little sheets to all attending to be signed by all of teachers and "administrator", who's the vice principal

it seems as if there are no problems. does getting absenses excused work differently where you are?

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We are two rival schools on one robotics' team. RUHS considers us a school related team, and our absences work the way yours does. MCHS isn't quite claiming us as school related this year, and is in such financial trouble that they are billing sports teams for the days their students miss school. The MCHS parents know about the dilemma, and maintain that their students will be going to the competitions, altho we have yet to determine how the school is going to respond.

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Am I missing something here? How is having some students miss school for a few days costing the school board? And does this mean that your team or the parents of the students on your team have to pay? Sounds like the MCHS school board is "punishing" or discouraging the students for wanting to attend competitions.

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I'm not familiar with all the details, but you know how if it's not an excused absence, then the school loses federal funds of around $48 a student for each day? Because of their financial problems, they're trying to bill sports teams for the loss in funds, and "asking" parents to pay voluntarily when their kids are missing school.

I don't think it's about punishing or discouraging the students for wanting to go to competitions. It is about feverishly backpeddling for money because of major money mistakes the district's made in the past - it's all been in the papers.

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I put up this post since I'm getting questions from a lot of people on how my team is doing so far. After my team won the New Jersey regional (see my sig) we got a lot of press coverage in town, the board of ed has now requested us, as a team, present at thier monthly meeting. They also requested the robot but unfortunately the meeting is the 22nd of this month and the robot will be on it's way to Atlanta. We're planning on doing a Power Point presentation with video and photos. I don't know how long our meeting will last or even why they requested us there but we will definitely be going with as many team members as possible. I'll also post an update sometime after the meeting.

Jenny (RoboMom007) I just want to thank you again, along with my team, for your help.

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Bring your 2003 robot. ;)

If you want some practace, go to Sparky384.com and we have a movie in our media gallery of Sparky 4 meeting Govn. Warner. I'd go and check it out.