Video by Erica Dalen and Sidney Marks

Travel Lock Down from Bellevue Video Yearbook on Vimeo.

Every year Bellevue Public Schools has allowed classes and clubs to go on field trips providing hands on learning and enrichment, but as far as time and money goes, they have to draw the line.

Field trips don’t always pass the test of whether they should be allowed, and lately the district is cracking down on what qualifies as an appropriate field trip.

The district looks at a number of qualifications that a field trip must pass in order to be taken by a class or club.

“The first priority when deciding if a trip qualifies is deciding whether it ties to class curriculum and if it enriches what the class or club does,” principal Kevin Rohlfs said.

Cost and distance are also big factors in deciding whether a field trip will get passed by the district. They have to look at the budget and depending on how much is set aside for trips, they can judge if its related to the curriculum enough to spend the money on.

“The trips that are farther away are more expensive and less likely to be approved,” Rohlfs said.

The Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) club went on a trip to the Nike headquarters in Oregon for the leadership conference last year, but this year the district ruled out the trip deciding that it was too costly.

“Since it is not part of the official curriculum, it had to be cut,” Rohlfs said.

However FBLA teacher Pat Hinkle argues that the trip is worth every minute away from school.

“It has been the best conference we have ever been to.  It shouldn’t matter how far it is, what should matter is what the conference gives back to the students. This specific trip was very beneficial to the students because they had the chance to learn about numerous topics that would have helped them in their futures,” Hinkle said.

At the conference in previous years, students received the opportunity to enhance their knowledge in leadership skills as well as business, college prep and other workshops. Senior Aaron Estrada said the conference was very important because it taught him things he wouldn’t have learned otherwise.

“It was discouraging when we found out we weren’t able to go. The students work really hard and it would have been nice to go on the trip,” Hinkle said.

The club intends on keeping up their hard work through the rest of the year regardless what trips they can and can’t go on.

Story by Holly Clauson
Reporter