Ed Board Takes Charge Of Trips Abroad

Metropolitan Business Academy teacher Karima Elhamraoui took 17 students on a field trip to France this spring. She worries a school system-wide change to protocol would prohibitively increase the cost for families on the next trip.

Elhamraoui spoke out this week about a new Board of Education protocol requiring students to buy travel insurance for international trips so they can get their money back if the trip is cancelled.

The board has decided to be more involved in deciding on individual field trips in the future, concerned after March’s fatal terrorist attack in Brussels.

Ed board members voted unanimously at Monday night’s meeting to have its Teaching and Learning Committee vet all international trip requests, instead of leaving that job to the superintendent’s staff in central office as in the past. The proposal will go to the Governance Committee June 20 for further consideration.

This decision is not unprecedented. Board committees used to approve all overnight field trips until 2014, when members decided they didn’t want to be overwhelmed with that amount of information.

After the March attack, board members voted to reimburse the cost of spring trips to parents wary of sending their children to Europe. The U.S. Department of State had put out a travel alert March 22 warning people to be cautious when traveling in Europe after terrorist attacks hit multiple countries on the continent.

The new protocol requires students to buy travel insurance so they get their money back if the Board of Ed decides to cancel a trip.

Superintendent Garth Harries said no trips were cancelled this spring, but one family did decide to pull out of a trip because of the warning. ​“The family was paid in full and poised to go. It was clear that it made sense that that family was uncomfortable traveling given the events,” he said. The family will be reimbursed by the Board of Ed.

And the Teaching and Learning Committee will review each trip proposal and recommend trips for final approval by the full board in June and July, ensuring all concerns are resolved.

Jessica Haxhi, supervisor of world languages, and Patricia DeMaio, grants manager, will still oversee the process, alongside the board. Trip leaders are required to keep Haxhi and DeMaio informed of any changes in the chaperones or students going.

Haxhi said the extra layer of board approval would not impact the process, because ​“we’re returning to what has always been the protocol…last year was the anomaly.” She and her team will ensure the applications fit the basic rubric so the board ​“doesn’t have to spend two hours reading them.”

If the U.S. State Department puts out a travel warning for a region, any trips going there will immediately be cancelled. If it issues a travel alert, any trips to that region will be presented to the Board of Education, which will make a decision on how to proceed.

Elhamraoui, a French teacher at Metro, said she does not plan to submit a proposal for a trip this year, in order to see how the new protocol affects teachers. She and two other chaperones took a group of 17 students to France this past April, and felt comfortable and safe, she said. ​“We were so lucky it did not affect us at all,” she said. The students ​“did have a great experience.”

She said she hoped the board would help with the added expense of the insurance. ​“If the board can find the funds, it would be great,” she said, especially ​“knowing that New Haven is a low-income district.”

Teachers already do a lot of fundraising to help with the thousands of dollars in costs to travel to Europe. Adding a few hundred dollars to that tab is significant, she said.

Instead of proposing her own trip, she is instead helping another teacher to plan one. ​“Maybe in 2017 – 2018, I’ll propose a trip,” she said. ​“I’ll see how things will go.”

Haxhi said the requirement for families to purchase insurance is a good thing. ​“It protects families from losing money if they themselves had a reason to cancel” and if the board decides to cancel a trip for any reason, she said. Insurance costs can range from 100 to 300 dollars.

Still, she knows the requirement makes the trips ​“a little bit more costly.” She is looking into ways to get outside funding, including grants, so students are not limited by whether their parents can afford trips or whether their teacher raises enough money.

“In many schools, the teachers will do myriad things to do fundraising to make it as affordable for as many kids as possible,” Haxhi said. But she said the Board of Ed should offer a variety of trips of different costs. ​“A couple of groups will go to Quebec or Montreal, which is more affordable.”

It would be hard for the board to cover the cost of insurance, because ​“at any given year, you don’t know how many people are going to take the trips and what the insurance would be quoted depending on where they go,” she said.

She said she would look at the impact of the requirement on the number of families who send their children on school trips, and ask teachers whether students report not being able to afford them. ​“Suburban school districts have these opportunities. If parents want their kids to be able to do it, I want it to be available,” she said.