Tam Union district considers reviving outdoor program
Tamalpais Union High School District officials are considering a new proposal to bring back a popular outdoor education program that was suspended last year in a string of budget cuts.
The plan calls for restarting the Team program in the fall of 2022 at Sir Francis Drake High School. The program would be expanded to include both juniors and seniors.
The program, which started in 1990 and ran for 30 years, was previously based at Tamiscal High School and was open to students throughout the district. It enrolled 24 students for their junior year.
The district’s board of trustees voted 4-1 in May to suspend the program as part of a $1.1 million budget reduction. The cuts, which also eliminated extra preparation periods in journalism and other classes, came after the district’s proposed parcel tax, Measure B, fell short of passage on the March 2020 ballot. Suspending the Team program saved the district an estimated $230,000 for the 2020-2021 school year.
Diana Goldberg, an English teacher at Drake who was one of the Team program’s lead teachers, said expanding the program could make it more financially viable for the district.
The program previously had two teachers overseeing the 24 students, Goldberg told the board on Tuesday while presenting the new proposal. Under the new model, there could be one teacher with a group of 30 students or two teachers for two 30-student groups. The district could pull existing staff members to teach students in the Team program, Goldberg said.
The program, which focuses on outdoor adventure, college preparatory academics and workplace learning, would continue to raise money for wilderness trips and outdoor gear used by students, Goldberg said.
More than 30 students, teachers and parents urged the board not to cut the Team program during a hearing on the budget cuts last year. Supporters said the program’s small-group approach was valuable for students and encouraged communication and support among participants.
“It was a very difficult night when we voted to suspend the Team program,” Leslie Harlander, president of the district board, said Tuesday. “It was not a pleasant evening, and it is so delightful to see you come back with a program that’s expanded and that our district will be able to offer.”
Goldberg said the program could provide a boost for students who are missing out on community during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The Team program expansion is an opportunity for us to help students come back to a new normal that is filled with what they’ve been missing after this hard time of life,”
Goldberg said. “Now more than ever, our youth need access to nature, to each other and to a sense of hope in our world.”
According to Goldberg,
school officials are ironing out the details of the proposed program expansion. The district aims to recruit a group of teachers interested in leading the program to develop the logistics of the new model over the summer. During the fall and winter, the district plans to begin fundraising and recruiting
students before announcing the first program participants in the spring. The program would then launch in the fall of 2022.
After two years under the new model, the district could expand the program to Redwood and Tamalpais high schools, Goldberg said. In the meantime, students
throughout the district could participate in Team by transferring to Drake, she said.
“I’m excited about this expansion,” said trustee Cynthia Roenisch. “I think this is an example of where, when challenged by finance and having been suspended for a year, it’s coming back to us in a better form.”