Invitations to Catalina come with a hitch

For years Teri Spring's seventh-grade son Austin has heard stories from his older brother and sister about the trip to Catalina.

Every year, Millswood Middle takes approximately 85 eighth-graders to Catalina for nearly a week of snorkeling, hikes, kayaking and hands-on science lessons.

For many families the trip has become a rite of passage for high-achieving children.

Invitations to the five-day trip to the Catalina Island Marine Institute at Toyon Bay are reserved for the top 120 students; and they still are.

However, some parents are worried that a slight change in the school's application process could edge out their children, some of whom have near 4.0 grade point averages.

"It didn't seem broke to me — why fix it?," said Teri Spring.

In order to get an invitation, students must be a top student during their seventh-grade year, maintain at least a 3.0 GPA until they go on the trip and stay out of trouble.

In past years, Millswood Principal Sheree Perez said the limited seats on the trip went to whomever turned in their applications and deposits first.

Families can send students on the trip for approximately $750. The deposit is $150. Fundraising opportunities and scholarships are also available.

The trouble, Perez said, is that some parents couldn't come up with the money for the deposit fast enough to nab a seat for their child. She didn't think it was fair for deserving students to be left out because of money.

So, starting this year Perez changed the rules.

Only the top 120 students are still invited to go to Catalina. The difference is that those that respond will be put into a lottery from which the school will choose 85 students.

"I don't think it's quite fair," said Kimberly Harris, whose daughter Kristina is near the top of her class.

Harris said she worries that if Kristina doesn't get picked in the lottery, the school will be teaching her daughter that people don't get rewarded for their hard work.

But Perez said the system is now more fair because students will have until the March break to come up with the money before they are dropped from the trip list.

Activities at the Catalina Island Marine Institute

The idea for the Catalina-based camp was conceived in 1978 by a group of people who wanted to provide an opportunity for students to learn through discovery.
Guided Discoveries, the nonprofit that runs the Toyon Bay camp, also runs two other camps on Catalina, a space camp and a sailing adventure program set on a ship.
The Toyon Bay location is about 2.5 miles from the city of Avalon.
The camp is housed in what used to be a private boarding school, built in 1929.

Activites include:
• Snorkeling
• Observing and touching fish, sharks and algae
• Hiking
• Kayaking
• Wall-climbing
• Squid dissection
• Night hike and astronomy study
— http://www.guideddiscoveries.org.

One year, she said, a single mother whose child had a 4.0 GPA could not gather enough money for the deposit to meet the deadline.

"To give her 10 days to come up with $150 is unfair," she said.

Danna Smith, who has a child at Millswood, said the new rules only shift the inequity to students who are pulled up from the waiting list.

For instance, if a student gets word that he has an opportunity to go on the trip during the summer, his parents not only have to come up with the deposit, they have to pay for the whole trip in a shorter amount of time.

Smith commends the school district for offering such an opportunity. She just wants to make sure that it's the students who have done the work that get to go.

Perez argues that it's very unlikely that there will be someone who misses out on the trip.

Between the time the 85 students are chosen and the time they board the plane to southern California, a lot can change.

Some don't keep up their grades. Others are suspended and, therefore, disqualified.

Also many students aren't interested in Catalina or would rather go to a sports-based camp during the summer.

Others move out of the district.

Perez said every time somebody drops out, another student gets the opportunity to go.

"The chances of that 4.0 kid not being able to go — slim to none," she said.

Only very seldom have students who wanted to go been left behind in the past 15 years that the school, previously Woodbridge Middle School, has gone to Catalina.

Still, Smith says the system is unfair and may not reward the students who have worked hardest to get the best grades.

"I know the school is saying it's pretty much the same, but it isn't," Smith said.

Contact reporter Amanda Dyer at amandad@lodinews.com.

Reader Feedback

Oh Bull ! wrote on Feb 1, 2008 8:27 PM:

" Cont'd
to on the Island also for that cost. The kids also still have to do regular school work while on the trip plus work while at the Catalina Camp. We found away for my child to go by getting her sponsor's. As most people will help kids that are setting a good example among other students and friends.
Once again I doen't understand the cost differecne between to lodi Unifed school
and child went this year also so I know it's not gone up that much more
"

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