SOUTH DEERFIELD — Under a new policy, the Frontier Regional School District will no longer sponsor international field trips, with the exception of those already scheduled for this academic year.
The Frontier School Committee passed the new policy with seven votes in favor and three against on Tuesday night after discussing the issue during several meetings.
While the new policy acknowledges that the School Committee “recognizes the educational value of student travel as an extension of the instructional program, and supports opportunities that enhance student learning, cultural awareness and personal growth,” it states that the district “shall not sponsor, organize or serve as the governing body” for international field trips with the exception of “rare circumstances” that the committee approves following a recommendation from the administration. Superintendent Darius Modestow mentioned an invitation for the school band to perform and be recognized at a venue in Montreal as an example of a hypothetical trip he may recommend.
While the district’s current policy requires board approval for all “school-sanctioned trips,” the new policy states that it may approve “school-sponsored travel” when it directly relates to class curriculum, school activities, and “is appropriately planned, supervised and funded in accordance with School Committee policy and administrative procedures.”
Under the committee’s vote, the new policy will not apply to the trips that are already scheduled to Argentina, and to Spain and Portugal.
According to Modestow, there was no specific incident that led to the administration’s recommendation that the district move away from sponsoring international student trips. The policy mentions that international travel “presents additional considerations related to safety, liability, supervision and cost.”
Since Modestow first brought up the recommendation in May, the committee has been mulling over the new policy, including at the Oct. 13 meeting, when the district’s legal counsel, Russell Dupere, weighed in on the issue.
Dupere said he has heard of school districts no longer sponsoring international trips due to challenges with health insurance coverage overseas, the cost of ensuring students have the proper accommodations such as nurses and personal aides so that trips are accessible to all students, and supervision. He clarified that the liability associated with issues like arrests, or students and staff members posting photos of them drinking, falls back on the school if it sponsors the international trips.
Compared to trips within the country, Dupere said both domestic voyages and trips abroad come with risk, but international trips pose a higher risk.
When asked for his recommendation, Dupere said he would vote to not sponsor trips if he served on the School Committee.
“Public schools have so much going on right now, there’s so many different financial pressures, and so this is one of those things where it can still happen, it’s going to happen in a different way, but you’re not going to have as much risk,” Dupere said.
Regarding class trips to foreign countries, he added, “In many ways, public education should be for everybody, and these trips are not for everybody.”
Before the committee voted in favor of the new policy, Deerfield Elementary School teacher Jennifer Smith said she was “disappointed” that the board was considering the new policy and claimed that Dupere’s comments lacked data.
“Saying, ‘I wouldn’t vote for this if I was a School Committee member,’ seems inflammatory and is not based on data given,” Smith said. “When our world is designed to keep people more and more isolated and siloed, supporting international travel opportunities feels like a value that we want to show to our students to become world citizens.”
She encouraged the committee to not move forward with adopting the new policy and instead revise it “to be more clear so that students can continue to safely experience the world we are part of.”
School Committee member Diane Curtis voiced concern about the “administrative burden” of international trips.
“I agree that international travel is fantastic … but I don’t necessarily believe the district should be taking on the liability for it,” Curtis said.
“For me, it was a lot about liability,” said School Committee member Allison Dean. “Do we want to continue opening ourselves up to liability if something goes wrong, when something goes wrong?”
School Committee member Cecilia Van Driesche said that she understood the “legal risk-averse argument,” but that she could not vote for the new policy “in good conscience.” She instead spoke in support of a “middle path.”
“There’s a way to be balanced and not [pursue] the most risk-averse path,” Van Driesche said. “I’m not convinced the most risk-averse path is the correct path.”
School Committee member Damien Fosnot, who voted against the new policy, called it the “easiest decision … from a liability standpoint,” but said international travel is a “fantastic opportunity” for students to “go outside of this little bubble of western Mass. and see what else is out there.”
“If you don’t want to take risk, don’t go on the international trip, but if the opportunity at least is there, there’s a choice for the families to make,” Fosnot said.
She added that teachers can continue to organize international trips. Under the new policy, travel opportunities can be shared with students and their families for “informational purposes,” but the travel will not be regarded as a school activity and, as a result, the district will not supervise the trip or use its insurance to cover it.
While Dean said international travel would still be possible under the new policy, Fosnot emphasized his stance that opportunities for international trips would drop.
School Committee member Olivia Leone claimed that international trips at Frontier “are sometimes priced out of range for a lot of people.”
“People can choose to go if they can afford to go,” Leone said.
She described trips sponsored by other groups besides the school, like Modestow’s hypothetical band trip or a grant-funded trip, as a different situation because it would be “accessible to everyone.”
“I would like for everybody to hear that, regardless of what happens with this vote, that we all genuinely as individuals support continuing these kinds of trips and opportunities,” School Committee Chair Melissa Novak added before the vote.
The new policy passed, with Fosnot, Van Driesche and Laurie Farkas voting against it and the other seven School Committee members voting in favor.
