SSMS changing D.C. field trip requirements

Because of the complaints it has received from many parents, South Side Middle School plans to change the way it chooses students for the annual eighth-grade trip to Washington, D.C.

The trip has been a tradition at the middle school for more than two decades. A former eighth-grade teacher used to organize it, but when he retired, the trip became a club activity for the school’s chapter of the National Junior Honor Society. That was nearly 20 years ago.

As it stands now, students must be members of the NJHS to go on the trip — meaning that they have maintained a grade point average of at least 92.5 for the last three quarters of sixth grade and the first three quarters of seventh grade.

“There has always been discussion that the D.C. trip is exclusionary,” said SSMS Principal Shelagh McGinn. “There’s always been some discussion and some complaints from families and students, from very hard-working kids who maybe got a 92.3, or maybe from very diligent and hard-working kids for whom an 85 is fabulous. And it really came to a head this year. There were many, many [complaints] this year.”

McGinn didn’t offer the number of complaints, but said they were “a significant increase in the discussion” over previous years.

Due to logistics, she said, it’s impossible to take the entire eighth-grade class, which usually numbers around 300, to the nation’s capital. This year, the school took 160 students, which is the maximum number it can manage. According to SSMS regulations, there must be at least one chaperon for every 10 students, and those chaperones are always members of the middle school staff.

“The only thing I wish is that we could let everyone go,” district Superintendent Dr. William Johnson said. “But we haven’t figured out how to do that yet.”

Sometimes, McGinn said, it can be hard to find volunteers. “You’re asking teachers or staff members to leave for three days,” she said. “You’re leaving your life. It’s a big commitment to take 160 kids to Washington, D.C., for three straight days, and they’re three very full days.”

The trip kicks off early on a Wednesday morning, on buses headed south. After they arrive, students visit monuments, museums and other historic sites around the capital. The days are long, usually starting at 7 a.m. and not ending until 11 p.m. The group gets back to Rockville Centre at 7 or 8 on Friday night.

“It’s a big trip, and it’s a big commitment for people,” McGinn said.

But parents have taken issue with the trip’s exclusion of students who aren’t NJHS members. As a result, the school’s administration and district officials decided to rethink how to decide who goes. The exact details are still being worked out, McGinn said, but NJHS membership will no longer be a requirement.

“It’s going to be more open-ended,” she explained. “Grades are going to be a portion of it, but it’s going to be a portfolio. It’s going to tie into our [International Baccalaureate] Middle Years Program and our philosophy of inclusivity.”

The process will not change for students who are currently in seventh grade. It would be unfair to change the requirements for them now, McGinn said, since they’re at the end of the six semesters that count toward the trip.

The new standards, whatever they may be, will go into effect for students who are now in sixth grade, and who will take the trip in 2017-18.

District officials plan to explore the possibility of expanding the trip to include the entire eighth grade, although the logistics would be complicated. “There are schools and districts that do it,” Johnson said. “I’m not sure how they do it. I’m going to call them to find out. This is going to be an ongoing discussion.”