How much does your school support your FIRST Team?

[chrisinmd]

Yeah, our school's team is the only FRC team in the county, there are several FLL and Vex teams however. We are lucky to have the support of an excellent, very dedicated mentor who teaches Calc C, the Engineering Design classes, coaches soccer and softball, and teaches nights at a local community college. Our team is only about 15 strong, but we have a great administration who supports 100% of what we do. Teachers are supportive for the most part, there are always exceptions, but getting out of class for building or competition isn't a big deal. Our boosters club gives us a little of money, but most of it comes from our primary sponsors. We are also very lucky to work right in the shop at school, and our working hours are never limited by external powers, ie prinicpal, custodians.

[Alekat]

5,000$

Am I the only one to answer the thread's question directly?

[Sgraff_SRHS06]

Where we are, we have about medium support. Many students know about our team and come to Chesapeakes that are not part of the team. But still, like our ice hockey team, the majority of the student population here does not know about us (or even care). However, this is true about a lot of our clubs (though there is a great deal of student participation.) We are about at the level of an athletic team in terms of outside support from the school. Our administrators back us, and actually got us in FIRST in the first place. (Originally, we were a part of #165 early in its history (us, Broadneck, and Severn), and then our Head Mentor decided to pull us out, and when we did not have a Pre-Engineering class, we founded the team to give opportunities to those students.) But as opposed to team spirit. It's mdoerate, though we're doing more stuff for it this year.

[Robocat1]

We are very lucky. Our current Superintendent/volunteer mentor started the team 6 years ago when he was HS principal. We have teachers willing to supervise a pep bus to our local regional (90 minutes away) and volunteer/work "overtime" - 6 a.m. - 7 p.m. to do so.

Our school is financially unable to support us with money, but they do pay two advisor stipends of about $3000 total (everyone else volunteers). There were 3 paid positions, but budget cuts 3 years ago ended that. Students pay all travel expenses and for school buses.

Our school is also extremely gracious in allowing us to host an Engineering/Techonology Career Fair & all-school assembly (which disrupt the schedule for an entire day) and allowing us to work with no custodians on duty, among other things.

Every year at least 2 of 5 board of education members come to competion.

The school has also added an Engineering Pathway as part of student scheduling (with help from a local university) and a robotics class and the requirement for AP science and math course students to spend time with us during build season.

Qe decorate our main hallway with FIRST posters/banners as well as posters/banners recognizing all of the other teams (athletic & academic) who succeed.

We also sponsor/plan an assembly which provides time for every HS activity to present their activity and recruit new member every Spring. Of course, our team/FIRST gets 5 minutes more presentation time than anyone else!

Football players & cheerleaders have volunteered to "sit" in our dunking booth fundraiser.
So, I guess the point is that support doesn't always come in the form of money!

[Doug G]

This type of thread has been given many different names - but really has the same point as the others, which I've responded to several times before, and what do you know I'm doing it again in this thread...

In the end, you'll hear about the great support at some schools and at other schools, they're building a robot in some shed. If the program is important enough to you and your team - do more in your school to gain support - make presentations to the board, football games, etc... Give out press releases to the local media and better inform the parents about your program. At our site, support has been mostly positive, because we've taken the time to get the word out. Unfortunately in the past year, we've not been recruiting new members as much, so the future looks like a difficult road - but I won't complain, because we didn't do enough to recruit more students and are trying to improve this.

So be proactive, take initiative and change the culture in your school/community the best you can. Don't wait for others to define your future!!

[Doug G]

Originally Posted by Alekat

5,000$

Am I the only one to answer the thread's question directly?

As previously mentioned, the district didn't just handout the $5000, we had to inform our superintendent about our program and its purpose and mission, and lobby hard for it. We are getting $5000 this year, while personnel are losing their jobs, programs are being cut, etc.... We educated them about how important this type of education is in today's society and they agreed.

You want school and district support? Go after it and be tenacious and if you don't get anywhere go to the county and ask for it there (ROP programs love this type of education)!

[YonZ]

Originally Posted by Alekat

5,000$

Am I the only one to answer the thread's question directly?

Everyone has replied perfectly well. By support I meant both your team's influence in the school, and money def counts as well.

[windup zeppelin]

we get no financial support from our school. The fund raising is run by our business members. The school may have initially given us money in our first year last year, but i dont think we get money from the school anymore (i need to inquire). Other then that our school just lets us stay on campus pretty late but the custodian has to be there to lock up and close some gates.

[ComputerWhizIA]

Our School is very supportive. We have a highter status than the sport's teams and everyone knows our team Number.

[omutton]

Our school supports us in every way except financially. This year, we were able to start 2 FIRST Robotics classes in our school. One was designed to tackle the Fundraising and Administration aspect of robotics where as the other one was a Manufacturing class. These classes allowed our Team to do new things like organize a coin drive for underpriveleged families and organize our trip to Phoenix for the Arizona Regional. The teachers are well aware of our program due to presentations made to them by involved teachers and seminars during PD Days. Our student body is aware of us as we have a display case with our trophies and updates in our newsletter.

In terms of finances, our school gave us $1500 for the first 2 years but then all of a sudden last year, gave us no money. They do however give us supply days so the teachers can take time off for the trips. Our school board gave us $7500 the first year, then nothing the next year and last year, all we got from them was a bill for heating and hydro from when we were in the school on weekends!

It is great to walk down the halls of Port Perry High School and see our banners displayed and our trophies for everyone to see. We have our own room for storage which is in a central location. A lot of people are supportive of us and it is awesome to have our administration, staff and student body behind us!

[Dermot_135]

Here at Mishawaka Indiana, team 135 gets a lot of support from our school "Penn High School." Since the beggining of the 6 weeks, we've been able to work from 3 pm to midnight or sometimes even 1 or 3 in the morning! We have an awesome shop available, and its always available! We've even built a half court playing field for practice! Most of our classmates are very supportive of us, and if they didn't know about robotics, they were always curious to know. Our school board gave us 2,500 dollars " We worked very hard for that money!" through concessions and having "Robotics Night". Our school supoervisor came to the Purdue regional and so did two representatives from the Patrick Metals company. I feel very grateful and fortunate to be supported by our community. We've even extended our outreach program to the South Bend team and we've helped them weld their parts! I do believe that every school should support their robotics teams 100%. Because that's what schools are for right? To educate kids? Things are pretty backwards these days. Best of luck to all of you and see you at nationals



IF YOU NEED ALUMINUM OR PARTS AT NATIONALS, STOP BY TEAM 135'S PIT!

[trashcat05]

469 Las Guerrillas is not supported by the school very much in any way that I can think of. It's pretty sad actually, but we still put the International Academy under our sponsor list =/. Although we are recognized by announcements in the morning, that's it. Our friends know about it and when the team walks around with identical sweatshirts and clothes, the other students in the school are either like..what the heck? or ..oh..robotics people. But in our school, we are all equally geeks so robotics doesn't make us stand out much. It would be nice to have more school support, but idk. I don't think that's going to be happening any time in the near future...

[LightWaves1636]

well...I guess the only people who know are the teachers and the srudents who have friends on the robotics team. and at rallies and the team goes out to show the school, It's something I wish could be improved more at our school is the the students supporting well, their school.

[114Klutz]

We have a fairly supportive administration which lends us half a room. The janitors are always happy to unlock doors for us and aid us when they can.

As for the student body, well - I don't think any of them know we have a team(aside from the friends of the team).

[Aaron D.]

Our school is very supportive in what we do, although I wish we could get a robotics room or a robotics building but we dont have the space on the poperty. BUt our school does acctually give us varsity letters for being on the team which is a huge thing, and they are realy supportive with ramp riot and stuff. We are really fortunate to have their support!