Think of the best school field trip you’ve ever been on. Whether it be the aquarium, the zoo, or just to the local park, I bet you’ve never thought about how complex the funding, planning, and overall execution of your favorite class trips really are.

“The biggest thing to nail down is our bus,” stated Aaron Kohrs, Minnetonka High School Choir Director. Normally buses are harder to coordinate, as well as the challenge of finding a school day with no conflicts such as exams, festivals, or state testing.
Kohrs shared that “There’s been a couple of awkward run-ins with testing, such as ACTs, where that’s been on the same day.” Teachers also have to coordinate with not only the school or location they are going to, but also the principal, having to get a waiver form submitted and signed, and then finally, “I write out a permission slip to be sent home to families.”

The funding for the field trip is also something to be discussed, “It can come from the booster club, vocal support, but mainly the school has funds for each department, so it would come out of the music department budget.” Although it may not seem like it, many of the other choir fundraisers held earlier in the year, such as the coffee and greenery sales, do not go into funding field trips, and instead go to the participating student’s account to pay their own field trip dues. “The thing we can gain as a school or a community, such as choir, is getting out of our Minnetonka bubble and realizing that we have similarities and differences to the schools next to us, and that can be pretty eye-opening.”

So next time when you scroll through Mr. Erickson’s instagram and you see a post from a field trip you’ll know the behind the scenes!