INFORMATION AS OF 9.26.18 - we will continuously update
From Booster Club President, Beth Nicosia:
A lot of you raised many concerns and had many questions, directly or indirectly relating to the Spain trip. We have tried to address these as follows:
SUMMER SCHOOL We spoke to Jennifer Williams and Gary Wayland regarding the possibility of creating a separate class exclusive to Orchestra students with a start date after their return from Spain. Unfortunately, this is not feasible for the following reasons:
Time Constraints - Summer school requires 3 weeks per semester, which is 6 weeks for a year long subject and there simply isn't enough time to do so. Summer School needs to be complete no later than August 2nd, 2019 to ensure successful processing of grades, paperwork before registration for the new school year.
Costs - Planning (and hence costs incurred related to resources being used) for 2019 summer school has already begun and planning for a separate summer school will only incur additional costs which make it expensive and financially not viable.
Teacher Availability - It is very difficult to get a teacher to agree to work these extra hours outside of the normal summer school hours.
Varied Subjects - While Modern World History would be the popular class choice for current Freshmen, other Orchestra Students may want other classes such as US History, American Government, Economics, or Math and Science subjects. One just can't accommodate these requests for a wide range of classes.
MBX also is wary of setting a precedence for any future groups.
After a lot of research here are other options for summer school:
ONLINE CLASSES - These are available for some subjects, mostly remediation except HEALTH
MBX FLEX - In this option, you could elect to begin summer school on Monday, 7/8. Learn more here: MBX Flex Summer School
HALSTROM ACADEMY, FUSION or NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - All offer summer school classes
OFL (Opportunities for Learning) - is a public Charter High School that offers students a flexible personalized schedule.
ECC (El Camino Community College) offers a wide range of classes across various subjects.
All the above are viable options. We suggest talking to your student's counselors, if you are unsure of what to do. If this trip was planned for during the school year, your student would miss more than a week of school, which besides being hard to do, is not favorable to teachers. Some teachers do not allow students to take make-up tests, or turn in projects and homework assignments at a later date. Moreover, if your child is also a student athlete, it is hard to be absent from a sport. Also, the trip would have to be much shorter, if we planned for it during the school year. Spring Break was not the best option too, as some students participate in trips with the Language Arts Department, and would not be able to attend.
MILEAGE POINTS Some parents asked about using mileage points to book the trip. While it will create more work for our Finance VP, we will work with Culture Path to figure out how we can make that happen. If you want to use points for your trip, we need to get that information ASAP.
EXTENDING STAY It is not a problem for people to extend their trip. If you plan to return at a later date, please let us know ASAP or by the deadline we send out after we commit to the trip with Culture Path. Parent Chaperones, we recommend that you not extend your trip, as you are working airport to airport and we will need to reassign your group, which will be difficult.
GOING EARLY Students and parent chaperones committed to the Spain trip do not have the option of starting their trip early and meeting us in Spain. All students and parent chaperones must travel together leaving from LA to Spain at the predetermined date.
SHADOW TOUR We would be happy to organize a shadow tour if we have 25 or more people interested. The costs would be higher than the main trip for two reasons: 1) During rehearsal, other sightseeing activities would be organized for the shadow tour. 2) In Valencia, the group is staying at a special facility that is conducive to this activity. Also, we got some discounted rates at this facility as it is being organized with the help of some local music friends. For Valencia (and possibly for the other cities) the shadow tour would be staying at regular hotels, not the same as the students. We will get back with deadlines on when we need your family information for a shadow tour so we can start with planning for the same. Orchestra families need to know that they cannot pull their students out of the chaperone groups to do any other family excursion, lunch or dinner outing, meet with friends and family, etc. We are responsible for the students as it is essentially a school field trip.
We hope we have addressed all your questions and concerns.
If you have any other questions or concerns, please contact Beth Nicosia, Booster President.