[ebarker]

Be very careful how you say this to the principal, you don't want to sound disrespectful or antagonistic:

The ENTIRE PLANET (more or less)
does FLL for 9 - 14 year olds
and FRC for 9-12th grade students.

If you set an expectation for a student, they will rise to the challenge. (with all due respect to FLL) Your principal is setting too low a standard for the 9th grade students. They are better than that !!

After you get through the stuff above you can then offer a compromise position. The 9th graders can do FTC as a JV type program. It is intermediate from FLL to FRC.