The crashing waves and barking elephant seals gradually became audible as the AP Environmental Science (APES) students walked through Año Nuevo State Park last March. When the beach came into view, students marveled at the seals, which napped on the sand and occasionally played with each other.
This is just one of the approximate 120 field trips the school takes each year. Many students don’t realize the intensive planning required behind the scenes for them to take place.
APES Año Nuevo trip
Every spring since 2010, APES teacher Kristen Thomson has taken her students to Año Nuevo State Park, located on the coast 20 miles north of Santa Cruz, to see its famous elephant seals. This year, the field trip took place on Feb. 5 and 6. While most classes in past years saw weaned seal pups, students this year saw male seals, which usually leave by early March.
According to Thomson, the trip ties together many themes and topics that students learn throughout the year, such as ecosystems, species interactions and conservation efforts.
“It allows students to apply their knowledge to an outside event,” Thomson said. “I think it’s great to learn outside the classroom, and it brings experiences that help students to get to know each other.”
Thomson usually begins planning the field trip in the fall semester. These trips have a complex approval process and often require approval from the school board, especially if they are overnight or involve traveling to locations outside of Santa Clara County. Because Año Nuevo is out of the county, both principal Greg Louie and superintendent Heath Rocha need to approve the trip.
After getting approval, Thomson sends out forms asking for voluntary donations from parents and guardians, since California’s laws state that public schools cannot force students to pay for field trips. In this case, the most costly part of the field trip is renting large buses to transport students, so if she doesn’t receive enough donations, she would have to cancel the trip. To remedy this issue, Thomson offers extra credit to all students once they collectively reach the donation goal, which has proven effective as the field trip has never been canceled in past years.
Once she gets enough funding for the field trip, it is officially in place and she sends out required forms to parents. The forms include a liability waiver, student behavior agreement and medical information, which can be time consuming to fill out. This step is often frustrating for Thomson as parents often have a hard time getting it submitted on time, despite the new digital format being more convenient than on paper. A final requirement is having chaperones to help her supervise the trip.
Although setting up a field trip from start to finish is more complicated than it seems, going on the trip is rewarding for both Thomson and her students.
“A lot of students say this trip is one of their favorite things about the class,” Thomson said. “As long as they think it’s worth it, I think it’s worth the stress of planning.”
Europe language trip falls short of signups
French students have been taking a trip to Paris every year since 2017, aside from a break due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with two trips happening after the pandemic. However, only eight students signed up for the last trip to France, which took place in 2024. Hoping to increase attendance, French teacher Elaine Haggerty and Spanish teacher Stephanie Marks planned a combined trip to France and Spain last school year, but it failed to materialize because of a lack of signups.
Taking a different tack this year, Haggerty and Marks tried working with a new company for the 2026 combined trip. However, it brought only seven sign-ups, again falling short of necessary participation.
“We expected more people to sign up this year since there was a bigger pool of students with both classes, but possibly because students can be immersed in the Spanish environment in the Bay Area, not many people signed up,” Haggerty said. “If we did a trip for only French students, they might feel like it was more worth their time since we would spend more time in a French speaking area.”
Unlike Thomson’s trip, the Spanish and French trip would have taken place during Spring Break and students wouldn’t miss school, so the trip would not have to go through the district’s approval process. Haggerty recalls that for the past trips, the company would put the whole trip together, handling insurance and the trip itinerary, making the planning a lot easier on her end.
However, since the trip is out of the country, Haggerty has to collect notarized consent from parents so that the students are able to go. Unlike other trips where maintaining large groups of students becomes an issue, especially on an overnight trip, the challenge is not brought up to Haggerty due to the small group of students that go on the trips.
Although the seven students who signed up could have been added to an existing trip with the new company, there weren’t any other trips going the same week for them to combine with, so the trip had to be canceled altogether.
Haggerty hopes that in the future, she can work with the students who were signed up for this year’s trip and put together a trip for next year that will meet all their preferences.
“I felt really bad having to tell the seven kids that we had to refund their money because we couldn’t go on the trip,” Haggerty said. “The trip to France is always important for my class because students get a chance to be immersed in the French environment and language.”
