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Elementary students to raise money for field trip
District and school don't have funds for science lab day
By Kate Carter
Students at Willow Glen Elementary School are getting the chance to see marine life up close and personal this month. They just need a little help to be able to take advantage of the opportunity.
Donna Dean's fourth-grade class and Ann Horton's third-grade class were chosen by lottery to attend an in-depth science program at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center at the UC-Santa Cruz Long Marine Laboratory. But they are having a hard time raising the money they need to get themselves there by 8:30 a.m. Dec. 19.
Dean found out her class was selected by the center, which receives many applications for the limited programs it offers, in early October. Their program begins in the morning, and in order to arrive on time, they would need to take a bus from school at 7:30 a.m.
However, the San Jose Unified School District's buses are all in use at that time, taking students to school for the day, so the district isn't able to provide transportation.
Dean then called a private charter bus company and found that it would cost $675 to rent a bus for the day to take the 32 children in Dean's class and the 20 children in Horton's class, as well as the school's science teacher Bill Kumagai.
"We don't have that kind of money," Dean said.
Dean approached the school principal, Anita Sunseri, who said she would ask the district for alternative transportation, but that with limited education funds affecting the entire state, the school's own budget doesn't have much left over for bus rentals.
"I don't have money to spare for that," Sunseri told the Willow Glen Resident. "With budget cutbacks, we're all going to be affected."
Dean then approached Parent Teacher Association President Karen Potts for help. The PTA raises about $20,000 a year for the school's teachers, giving about $670 to classes with 35 students and $560 to classes of 20 students, Potts said. If Dean were to use her fund for the class trip, she would wipe out her entire account and would not be able to save money up for her class's end-of-the-year science trip to the beach, as she does every year, Potts said.
"She's hooked into a lot of science things," Potts said. "I told [Dean], 'If it takes me standing out in front of the classroom, I will personally make it happen for you.'"
Dean then called the school district board President Gary Rummelhoff, who directed her to board trustee Carol Myers, who represents Willow Glen. With Myers' and Sunseri's help, the class will be able to borrow a bus from the Evergreen School District at a cost of $575.
Dean said she got a lot of support from the school district officials and the school administration and PTA. But their support alone won't get her students on that bus; the district itself doesn't pay for school field trip expenses.
District spokeswoman Karen Fuqua said budgets for things like field trips are determined at each school site by the school's PTA or other fundraising organizations.
District 6 City Councilman Ken Yeager's office offered to contibute half the cost of the bus, aide Debbie Rocha said. The elementary students' parents were able to come up with $100 to contribute, and children were offering their pennies, Dean said. Horton is writing a grant for the money, but at press time hadn't yet heard if she had received it, Dean said. The class also held a popcorn-sale fundraiser Dec. 9 to raise more money to go, she said.
"Willow Glen is a real mixed school, and we're always walking a real tight political line," Potts said, adding that about half of the school's students receive some sort of financial assistance. "It's been tight to try to get parents to do all those additional things."
That's why taking the trip is so important for many of her students, Dean says. Many of them might never get the opportunity to go to a place like the marine lab if they don't go through school.
"This is just not any other extra field trip," said Dean, who has been a docent at the center since it opened in January 2000. "This was recently named the top place in the world for marine biology studies. This marine lab is just fantastic."
In preparation for the field trip, Dean brought items she collected from the beach after a storm and had each child write a story from the perspective of one of the items.
"I got the most fabulous writing and drawing," she said.
She said her students know she docents at the lab every other Saturday and will ask her on Mondays if she saw anything new.
"It has sparked so much interest in other areas," Dean said of her students. "They really need to go to this. It's a joy to see someone who's never seen the ocean get to touch a sea star and see the joy on their faces."
Kevin Keedy, the center's youth programs manager, said the students in Dean's and Horton's classes will be participating in the You Otter Know program, which will teach the children about different aspects of otters' lives, their food chain and how human behavior affects their environments. The children will be led in experiments using individual lab equipment and will be allowed to interact with the sea life as well as take a tour of the lab and the center's marine mammal research area, he said. Keedy said the programs are designed to meet the State Department of Education's science guidelines for each grade level.
"Students get to do a series of lab stations led by trained docents and volunteers," he said. "Students are really engaged in hands-on activities. It's really the way that kids learn things. Ideas and concepts stay with the kids when they construct them themselves. They're scientists for the day, and hopefully it will fuel a spark that will continue."
The center offers more than 200 programs for classes every year, and schools submit their choices for when to visit the center and are given the OK based on a lottery. About 80 percent of the programs are filled through the lottery, Keedy said, and only the least popular programs offered early in the morning remain, he said.
"We're inundated with requests for programs," he said. "That's why we had to go to the lottery system. As word spreads about us, I know it will be harder and harder to get people in."
District officials agreed that science programs like these are a valuable way for students to learn and become excited about learning.
"We really encourage contextual learning," Fuqua said. "It brings learning alive."
"We need to fund more science fieldtrips than these performing arts things," Myers said.
Dean said she is determined to take the children to the lab and give them an experience unlike any other.
"The ocean is like our last frontier," Dean said. "I'm dealing with the last frontier everyday with these students. They're our future."
To donate to the class trip, write a check to WGES PTA, and indicate in the memo, "Dean's field trip." For more information, call the school at 408.535.6265.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
