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Parent urges FCPS to restore longstanding Weinberg Center field trip blocked by curriculum designation
Summary
A Frederick County parent said a new curriculum designation is administratively blocking a 15-year seventh-grade field trip to the Weinberg Center and requested staff designate the trip as supplemental instructional activity so students can attend. District staff said they are aware and will follow up.
George Pullen, a Frederick County father of students in Frederick County Public Schools, told the Curriculum & Instruction Committee that an administrative curriculum designation has blocked a long-standing seventh-grade field trip to the Weinberg Center that has run for about 15 years. “This is a paperwork problem. This is not a partnership problem or money problem,” Pullen said, adding that the theater and its staff are ready to host students. He said his son helped collect signatures — “over 200 of his classmates” and “500 family members” — in support of preserving the trip.
Pullen asked the committee to “direct staff to approve the seventh [grade] A Christmas Carol trip, as a supplemental instructional activity” and to review FCPS policy 500 designations so the trip can proceed. Pullen appealed to the committee not to let a procedural designation “be the Scrooge that steals Christmas in this tradition.”
A committee representative acknowledged the concern, said there has been a change in the district’s partnership-selection process tied to curriculum, and told Pullen that staff were working through the issue and would follow up with him. No formal vote or policy change occurred during the meeting; staff said they would discuss options and report back to the speaker.
Details from the public comment record: • Petition and support: Pullen said the petition included “over 200 of his classmates” and “500 family members.” • Venue: the Weinberg Center, a 99-year-old cultural venue, was described as ready to host school matinees. • District response: staff acknowledged the partnership-selection change and said they would follow up directly with Pullen and the family.
The committee did not make an immediate procedural change at the meeting. Staff told Pullen they would investigate whether the trip could be designated as a supplemental instructional activity or another appropriate category under FCPS policy so that the Weinberg Center matinee could proceed.
