[gburlison]

We have had some good luck and bad luck in our relationships with the school system. Our first year, we were a class project at one school. After the season was over, our teacher felt overwelmed and our principal felt that a small number of students benefitted from a large amount of money raised to fund the team. As a result the second year was very stressful. We had a new teacher who really didnt want to be involved. The principal decided to shut us down before the kickoff. We decided to continue without the school support. Before the build season was over, we had gained support of the School Board and interest from a teacher at a different high school in our school district. Needless to say with all of the distractions, we were not very competitive in our second season. Since that time we have been a District Team. We have students from three of the five different high schools in our district. We have become the model by which the school district creates district based teams instead of high school based teams.

Being part of the school district requires that we deal with their buracracy concerning paying bills, holding meetings, travelling, etc. On the whole I think we get more positive than negative from our relationship with the school district.