Re: School Problems
 

Billfred,

If you're posing this to the initial poster, there are 2 things that may inhibit that. #1, they go to a private school. Private schools have all-around different rules. #2, they're from Canada. Once again, Canada has different rules, though typically they are very similar.

Re: School Problems
 

Beth, he's posting with regard to 1610's question; they had similar issues to the team from Canada, but they're from Franklin, Virginia.

Speaking of which, members of 1610 should take a look at this link, and especially Section B. I believe that covers in adequate detail what needs to be done to be heard before the Franklin school board. Specifically, see sections BBBB and BDDH for opportunities for student participation. Per section BDDH, "[a]ny citizen may address the Board at any regular meeting", if proper prior notice is given; additionally (as a separate right afforded you by these bylaws), if a student (or certain others) wishes to make a presentation for 5 minutes during the "citizens' time" portion of the meeting, he needs only to notify the clerk before 7:30 p.m. on the day of the meeting. (Note that the closed portions of meetings are handled differently, but that shouldn't be an issue for you, because you aren't discussing confidential information.) Per section BDDG, the minutes of every meeting are kept, and available for a nominal copy charge, during business hours to any Virginia citizen, at the school board office. They're also required to submit to a FOIA request, if things really get out of hand.

So, with a copy of that document in hand, get the team together to make a full-fledged presentation (not the 5-minute citizens' time, if you can help it); be organized, and make your appointment well in advance. Billfred was right—you're entitled to participate in the administration of your education system. I don't know who told you that you're only allowed to write letters to the board, but you should probably have a word with them about that misconception.

Also, be nice to them; they observe Robert's (Revised) Rules of Order, and will expect that you conduct yourselves accordingly. Just give them the facts, in a nice, sincere presentation, and then hope that they see past the money problems....

Re: School Problems
 

keep in mind that the school does not need to fund the team. My team receives no funding whatsoever from our school, they simply provide us with a staff advisor and a place to work

Re: School Problems
 

My School more or less did the same. Our Techology supervisor for the school system and thought it was cool so she set the team up. The school basically said, if you can raise the money yourself, and get some sort of adult to supervise (In our case those would be the couple of mentors with us on the team) Then go ahead. But then again, the Machine shop we have been using was 5 years old, and hadn't had a class in it. So we had to replace almost everything this year short of a laithe, Using the funding we had aquired.



***

Note: To any one who was offended, the post about having your parents call you off school, if the school didn't support the team was a Joke. Just so we're clear .:p

Re: School Problems
 

Yeah I'm using 1610's number, because I'm part of their team now. (Supposedly). All of our 616 mentors joined 1610's team because they're not dealing with our school board and their issues anymore. But our team number was 616. And the reason why we couldn't go to the school board meeting was because it was a closed one in which they met to decide our fate. If we wanted to attend, we would have had to submit a proposal to the school board and then they would have to vote to see if we could get in 7 days prior. We didn't know until 3 days before of the meeting.

Re: School Problems
 

Thanks for the advice!

The main problem is that we don't know why the school is putting restrictions on us, and we're trying to figure that out first before we go into more drastic actions.

Thanks!

Re: School Problems
 

Ask. If they don't tell you, get your parents or teachers to ask. If the school does not tell them, it may mean that they don't have a reason, in which case you need to go higher up. If you really have to, split from the school and form a neighborhood club to compete.