Budget Puts Brakes on Field Trips

Looking forward to that field trip in May? Your field trip may be in jeopardy. As of last month, the Alexandria City Public School system-wide field trip budget has run out. A budget that was supposed to allow students and teachers to expand their learning beyond the concrete walls of TC all year long lasted a mere three and a half months. “As of December 16th, there is no more money for field trips.” said Dennis Randolph, Assistant Athletic Director and coordinator of field trip buses.

The ACPS field trip fund is set up by the school system’s budget annually to pay for field trip transportation costs. Such costs include an hourly wage for the bus driver and diesel fuel for the ACPS-owned bus. The majority of field trips from TC Williams and the ACPS system travel via school bus from Alexandria to Washington, DC. The average cost of a day field trip lasting from 9AM-1PM with a 30 minute round trip drive to Washington is about $150-$200 per bus.

But the Alexandria to Washington, D.C. trips are relatively inexpensive compared to overnight trips. There have been at least 6 overnight field trips this year alone that have cost the system wide fund $1500-$2000 per trip. An overnight trip to Williamsburg, for example, is the equivalent of roughly 10 trips to Washington.

To get a field trip approved, a teacher must first fill out a form online. Once submitted, the form travels to the subject area department chair. If the department chair approves the trip, the request is sent to the T.C. administration. A team of administrators then meets to determine if the field trip has significant educational value worth spending valuable funds on. Once approved by the team of administrators, the field trip is officially approved or denied and, if approved, is passed on to the athletic department. The athletic department is responsible for organizing transportation for field trips leaving from T.C. Once the bus is booked, the field trip is completely ready to go.

Executive Principal William Clendaniel has made it clear that all field trips approved before the Winter Break will go ahead as planned, as the T.C. administration looks for creative ways to find field trip funds. There are currently 16 field trips at TC Williams that have been fully approved but lack necessary funding.

So what are the options? One option would be to ask subject area departments to pay for the field trip. The English Department is currently in the process of paying around $250 to fund a field trip. But with their limited available funds, very few field trips would be able to be paid for by the subject area departments.

Another option would be to ask students to pay for field trips. Though this option is less desirable because of many of T.C’s families’ financial issues, it may be the only option to get the wheels rolling on schools busses and the field trips going again.