Trips reward students for good grades, behavior

Instead of hitting the books, hundreds of local middle school children this month will spend a day plunging down water slides at Wild Waves as a reward for good grades or great behavior. Others will don roller skates, take in a baseball game or enjoy a barbecue at Borst Park.

Incentive trips for local students who excel scholastically or make good behavior choices have been in place at many local school districts for more than a decade.

But they’re new to me, probably because it’s been beyond a quarter of a century since my junior high years.

When I attended school in Longmont, Colo., I remember rejoicing when I received an A on my report card. I enjoyed earning good grades, but it meant something more: free admission to the roller-skating rink.

With six kids in a low-income family, we had very little extra money for recreation. For the most part, we stayed home, played at the school grounds and made our own fun.

But when report cards arrived, we rushed to the roller rink to claim a punch card with a free admission spot for every A received. That’s the only way I learned to skate.

Students should work hard for good grades regardless of any incentives, and they do. But the school-sponsored trips provide an official atta-boy or atta-girl, on top of the satisfaction students derive from doing well.

Third-quarter honor roll students at Mossyrock—those with a 3.0 GPA and no D’s or F’s—will be treated to a baseball game this week. Twenty-four high school kids will see a Mariners’ game and 42 junior high students—more than 40 percent of the school’s enrollment—will watch the Tacoma Rainiers play. Eighty-five Rochester Middle School students who earned a 3.25 GPA for the first two trimesters—17 percent of the enrollment—are visiting Wild Waves today.

What about the kids who struggle academically? Many districts provide a fun end-of-the-year trip for students who make it through the school year without receiving any written infractions for behavior or other problems—a goal attainable by all students.

Centralia Middle School students with good behavior for two years receive a fun outing, such as a trip to Wild Waves or a barbecue at Borst Park. Onalaska students with an 85 percent attendance record and no discipline problems or F’s will be roller-skating tomorrow.

For students achieving a 3.2 GPA or above, Toledo Middle School offered honor roll field trips at the end of the first, second and third quarters—bowling, skating and a Portland Beavers game—but the last quarter trip to Wild Waves is reserved for students who made it through the year without a written infraction.

“The school pays for the bus and driver and getting to the site,” Principal Bill Waag said. “We try to keep the cost of the trip to a minimal amount. The kids come up with the admission fee.”

If a student can’t afford the fee, he said, teachers or others often pitch in to cover the cost. The trips usually take place when the school has a half-day of classes scheduled.

The district started the behavior-only trip three or four years ago, Waag said. This year 160 of the school’s 240 students qualified.

“That’s really a big incentive for kids to make right decisions,” he said. “We tend to have more and more qualified for the trip each year.”

More than 300 Chehalis Middle School students who received no infractions during the year—dubbed All-Stars—will be skating and eating lunch for free at the Centralia Rollerdrome next week. The 317 students represent more than 48 percent of the school’s student body.

“I think it’s worthy because those students who do the right thing and follow the rules, they get rewarded for doing that,” said Sue Austin, librarian. “We’ve got a lot of good kids here. There are just some students that have more trouble with the academics but they certainly behave themselves and are good citizens.”

Chehalis students who earn a 3.5 or higher grade point average, or those who raise their grade point average by half a point, receive a color-coded reward sticker on their ASB cards entitling them to free items or discounts at local businesses. Students who earn a 4.0 grade point average are treated to a special breakfast at school.

You’ve heard the adage, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Well, it turns out Jack isn’t so very dull after all—when hard work means he can play at the end of the year.

Julie McDonald Zander is a personal historian and former journalist who lives in Toledo. She owns Chapters of Life, a company dedicated to preserving the past, one family’s story at a time. Her Web site is www.chaptersoflife.com She can be reached at memorybooks@chaptersoflife.com