Support from your school?

[geedee]

I know this has been tangentially discussed in the past, but have any SO clubs here ever had issues with the school board or principal not wanting to support you? We're currently having a run-in with our school board superintendent, who is telling us that we are not allowed to hold event sessions in individual peoples' homes out of concerns for liability and he claims that it's against California Ed Code. If he doesn't support us, we can't have the principal of the school sign our entry form for Regionals. Our team is completely run by parent volunteers, so this would shut us down. I'm especially interested to hear if there are any schools in California who meet outside of school -- any issues?

Suggestions would be great!

[Unome]

I know this has been tangentially discussed in the past, but have any SO clubs here ever had issues with the school board or principal not wanting to support you? We're currently having a run-in with our school board superintendent, who is telling us that we are not allowed to hold event sessions in individual peoples' homes out of concerns for liability and he claims that it's against California Ed Code. If he doesn't support us, we can't have the principal of the school sign our entry form for Regionals. Our team is completely run by parent volunteers, so this would shut us down. I'm especially interested to hear if there are any schools in California who meet outside of school -- any issues?

Suggestions would be great!

We meet out of school all the time, but we're a private school, so yeah... no superintendent.

[asthedeer]

YUSH homeschoolers pretty much dominate about studying in individual homes.....can't help you much there.

[CulturallyScientific]

I'm sorry to hear that this is happening to you. Most of my school's studying is done at school, but we've hosted study sessions at individual homes, too. Your superintendent's logic doesn't seem to make sense - does that mean that sports teams that have team dinners before games at people's homes or even students working on projects together at other people's houses, all of that is subject to liability and against the California Ed code? Really sorry that I can't provide any more since I've never run into this issue before, but I agree, the situation doesn't really make sense ... and I'm a California high schooler, too.

[John Richardsim]

I think the liability concern is legitimate and certainly isn't just them not wanting to support you. I think the real problem here stems from having official team practices at a person's house, and not just an optional study session. I would say try finding a teacher who's willing to let you use their room after school for practices.

But yeah, I'm sure that your superintendent and principal have no problem with your Science Olympiad team. Legal liability is a huge deal, and they really can't take any chances. Let's look at it this way, they probably wouldn't want to support you if you get your school in a heap of legal trouble, so you'd be better off having official practices at the school.

[geedee]

Thanks everybody. I agree we don't want people to get in trouble if somebody gets hurt (not likely if you're doing a study event, but what if you're using a tool for a build event and someone loses an eye?), but the coach made our parents sign waivers so I thought everything was OK. And there is like no support at all from our teachers, who all just want to get home after school. We may be able to organize our own study sessions, but I don't see how we'd handle the build events -- we would need lots of time and there are no tools and no place to store our stuff so we'd have to move everything to and from school every day.

I just wanted to know how other schools do it -- does everybody do their build events at school, for example? What about like a couple of years ago when we were up until almost midnight before Regionals doing last-minute tuning on our mousetrap car? I don't think we could convince our school to open the doors for us after hours like that.

[A Person]

I think how it does in my school is that all builds are done at home, as it's easier that way, though there are build practices. Studying is done at school.

[A Person]

Accidental double post.

[SPP SciO]

There may be a budgeting issue, rather than a "liability issue," which sounds more like admin-speak for "I don't want to deal with this issue right now." As a student, I was completely oblivious to that side of things, but for administrators, it's a big deal. Depending on the district, there are probably strict rules about what's considered an official "club" and what's not. Usually the requirements would be a minimum number of students (which is why you have to have some official attendance every practice), a faculty advisor (who needs to be paid, since they're likely working with students outside of their contract) and some sort of meeting space. If one of those requirements is too difficult to manage, there may not be approval.

Really, though, for Science Olympiad, the barrier to entry is pretty low. In my school, 10 is the official minimum number of students for an official club. Get 9 friends together, and propose the idea to your favorite teacher. If the teacher's not in favor of the time commitment, find another teacher. Try one that's young and new at the school - they're staying late anyway, and trying to make a good impression.

I can definitely see the superintendent being weary about off-campus practices, but that's probably just because they don't understand the issue fully. The home-based practices would be 100% student led, no teachers present, and they'd be "voluntary." You and your friends/teammates could work out any schedule you like, and you could practice a dozen hours a week outside of school if you liked - as long as you did the one hour, at school, with a teacher, and official attendance etc.

Take some time and do your homework - start here: http://soinc.org/organizing_team The more work you do up front, the less work that administration needs to do, and ANY admin will give a green light to something that will make their school look better without additional stress on their plate. Get committed students together first, find a coach, find a time to meet - at school, outside the school day - and get an estimate for a start-up cost (registration, tournament fees, transportation fees, maybe even t-shirts or materials). If you organized all that information into a nice document, make a professional presentation, and STILL get a "no," get your parents to call and ask for an explanation. It's sad but often true - adults can be dismissive of kids, but cranky parents are tough to ignore.

Also - any negotiating between students/teachers/admin should always be done via email. You can plan your argument a lot better, and there's a written record of the exchange. And if you happen to be dealing with the one-in-a-million admin who's just truly nasty and hating on Science Olympiad, you can post the email exchange online and delight in how the internet tars and feathers the no-goodniks.

Good luck, and don't give up - "when there's a will, there's a way."