A recent decision by the Detroit Lakes Public Schools administration to cancel a spring field trip to the Twin Cities for fourth grade students at Rossman Elementary School has the parents of some of those students feeling as though the district administration has let them down.
“I think by and large this school board and administration do an excellent job,” says Rossman PTO member Amy Erickson.
But on this particular issue, she added, she feels they didn’t really act in the best interest of the students, or the parents.
“We went through the proper channels to try and get this resolved,” adds fellow PTO member Aaron Dallmann.
“We went to the administration and asked them what we could do as parents to make them comfortable with this trip,” Erickson said.
ADVERTISEMENT
“They never really gave us an answer, they just canceled the trip,” Dallmann added. “We don’t feel our voice was heard.
“And now we have to break it to these kids that this trip they’ve been hearing about since they were in kindergarten isn’t going to happen.”
“My son even made a petition - a petition that had 300 signatures on it, from students and staff - to make this (trip) happen,” adds Amy Erickson.
She feels it’s an important part of the students’ education - and even went so far as to try to get the parents of Roosevelt Elementary students involved, as well as parents of special education students, so that all Detroit Lakes fourth graders would have the same opportunity.
“I think there’s a lot of educational value in a field trip like this, for all (fourth grade) students, not just Rossman,” she said, adding, “I feel this is part of a larger issue. This district is leaning away from experiences like this for our kids, and more towards standardized testing… I don’t feel my child’s education can be reduced to a number on a test.”
“There are some kids who never leave this town,” said Dallmann, whether it’s for class field trips or family excursions. “They look forward to this trip from kindergarten on… I feel they failed our kids on this.”
But according to Superintendent Doug Froke, the decision to cancel the field trip was based on a variety of concerns.
“The administrative team felt that there were some concerns around the trip in terms of safety, the age appropriateness of the trip, and its curriculum appropriateness,” he said. “We felt that in the form it was organized, it wasn’t something we could support.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Administratively we had an issue with fourth graders going on an overnight trip,” he said, adding that planning such a trip for students in sixth grade or later might be more age appropriate.
Additionally, the visits to the State Capitol and Fort Snelling that were planned as part of the trip (along with an overnight stay at the Science Museum) were perceived to be “better suited from a curriculum standpoint for students in our Minnesota history class, which is taken by sixth graders,” Froke added.
And then there is the fact that the State Capitol is currently in the midst of a massive renovation project. “While I think visitors can get around the Capitol, there are no supervised tours planned in 2015 or 2016,” he said.
When asked whether such a trip might be in the works for sixth graders in the district, Froke noted, “If the sixth grade teachers wanted to do something they would have to put a plan together and submit it for approval.”
Ultimately, both Erickson and Dallmann expressed disappointment over the way that the trip was canceled so abruptly, without even allowing the parents to attempt to work out a way to make it happen for this year.
“We’re just really disappointed,” Erickson said.
Froke, for his part, admitted that “We probably didn’t do the best job of communicating (the reasons for the decision) effectively.”
