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Duxbury High presents revised travel handbook; committee to review before second read
Summary
Duxbury High School presented a substantially edited International and Domestic Travel Handbook on first read, proposing clearer chaperone expectations, checklists and a return of trip leaders presenting proposed overseas trips directly to the School Committee. Administration said a final version with an appendix of chaperone links will return for
Duxbury High School presented a revised International and Domestic Travel Handbook on a first reading, outlining clearer expectations for trip planning, adult supervision and documentation for multi-night trips.
Principal Cotton Herman told the School Committee she renamed the existing Global Travel Handbook to make it applicable to both international and domestic overnight trips and removed redundancies. "Some pieces of it were a little bit outdated," she said, and staff worked over the summer to reorganize the handbook and add checklists in an appendix so trip leaders can track planning steps.
Major proposed changes and recommendations
Herman said the edits fall into four categories: brevity and clarity, checklists for planning and on-trip responsibilities, clearer student eligibility guidance and stronger chaperone training and expectations. She said the handbook also aims to memorialize practices already used informally during trips, such as pre-trip coordination with nurses, guidance counselors, business office and building principals.
Assistant (or committee member) Jen Putnam recommended reinstating a practice in which trip leaders come before the School Committee to present proposed trips, rather than placing trips automatically on the consent agenda. "That would be another practice that we would be recommending moving forward," Putnam said, adding the change gives committee members a chance to ask about security and location-specific concerns.
Herman discussed how the handbook would treat existing versus new trips. She described a hybrid approach: students already signed up likely meet eligibility requirements, but administration plans to meet with chaperones for existing trips to review new expectations. She said some provisions—such as requiring overnight security for hotel stays—may be difficult to apply to trips leaving soon because staffing and costs may not have been built into already-sold trip packages.
Other clarifications, forms and next steps
Herman said the handbook will include a chaperone contract outlining responsibilities and an appendix with links to referenced forms; that appendix is still under construction. Student and parent contracts already signed at trip signup will be retained and updated when necessary; additional overnight-trip specifics will be incorporated into the appendix.
Herman said the handbook is intended primarily for adult trip leaders rather than students, though student-facing expectations will be included in the student/parent signoff materials. She recommended sharing the edited handbook with school council members before bringing a final version back for a second reading.
Committee feedback and schedule
Committee members asked whether pre-trip meetings should be mandatory for parents; Herman suggested a hybrid approach, offering remote participation for a brief pre-trip session when families cannot attend in person. Members also asked about how homestay exchange programs (for example Spanish exchanges) would be handled; Herman said homestays require vetting host families and cannot always be treated the same as hotel-based trips.
No committee vote was taken; Herman said she will bring a second-read version after school-council review and after finalizing the chaperone-contract appendix.
Ending
The committee accepted the handbook for first read and asked administration to return with a revised version and the completed chaperone appendix.
