Going to a FIRST event is apparently not a field trip

[Jimmy Nichols]

Our trips are approved by the school board directly so that the students receive excused absence. Although we have students from other schools that usually choose not to travel as it isn't considered a field trip by their school since the program isn't directly associated to their school.

Seems to me you, in essence, have 2 separate teams, the 4-H team and the Career Center Team. Therefore the rules are different. If your 4H team is associated with the school, then I would assume you would need to have a separate approval for that team. If you are not connected to the school then I would agree that the absence's would be unexcused since you aren't an official school associated team/program. It would be the same as missing or having you parents sign you out of school. Sometimes the rules aren't what we like, but we need to learn to work with them while, maybe, at the same time working to change them.