Pinnacle High School students will travel to California and Kentucky this fall for four extracurricular trips ranging from football and cross country competition to student leadership and career development.
The Paradise Valley Unified School District governing board approved the trips Aug. 6. District policy requires parental permission, appropriate chaperone ratios and both male and female chaperones for overnight trips.
The first trips will take place Aug. 27-29, when Pinnacle's football team and members of the school's "Crazies" student organization travel to Huntington Beach, California.
About 80 football players in grades 9-12 will make the trip to compete against Edison High School. The trip is expected to cost $450 per student and will be funded through booster club funds.
At the same time, 45 members of the Pinnacle Crazies will participate in a student leadership experience designed to go beyond their familiar role of building school spirit at athletic events.
The trip will include a college exploration visit at University of California Irvine and a leadership collaboration with Edison High School's student government. Students will also participate in activities focused on student engagement and campus culture.
According to district documents, the experience is intended to help students develop leadership skills, school culture initiatives, college and career awareness and collaborative communication skills.
The Crazies trip is expected to cost $200 per student, paid through the Student Activity Fund and participating students. Doug Kilburn, Kelly Rosenbalm and Renee Diether are listed as chaperones.
Cross country heads to San Diego
Pinnacle's cross country program will travel to San Diego Sept. 4-6 with 30 students in grades 9-12 to compete in the CCA Ravens XC Invitational.
The trip replaces a previously approved one to Huntington Beach. District documents state the original trip, approved by the board May 14, had to be reorganized because of school events.
The San Diego trip is expected to cost $400 per student and will be funded through booster club funds. Richard Shannon, Trey Warren, Kelly McInerey and Jen White are listed as chaperones.
DECA students travel to Kentucky
Later in the semester, 20 Pinnacle DECA students in grades 10-12 will travel to Louisville, Kentucky, Nov. 19-22 for the Ultimate DECA Power Trip.
Students will participate in leadership competitions and labs, visit college, career and company exhibits and attend professional learning lectures.
The trip is expected to cost $850 per student and will be funded through tax credit funds and participating students. Cheryl Shea is listed as the staff chaperone.
Together, the trips will involve 175 Pinnacle students, although district documents do not indicate whether any students will participate in more than one trip.
The Huntington Beach trip also gives Pinnacle's Crazies an opportunity to take the school-spirit organization beyond the stands and examine how students at another high school approach leadership and campus culture.
Who are the Crazies?
The Crazies are a Pinnacle student organization focused on increasing student participation in campus life, particularly athletics, while providing leadership opportunities for its members.
“They work with the student body to create experiences for the Pinnacle High School students to take part in all of the activities, and in particular athletics, that their high school campus provides,” Chris Asmussen, assistant superintendent of secondary leadership, told the board.
The Huntington Beach trip will take that mission beyond Pinnacle's campus. In addition to supporting the football team against Edison High School, the 45 participating students will explore UC Irvine and meet with Edison student government leaders to exchange ideas about student engagement and school culture.
District documents describe the trip as a student leadership experience intended to develop leadership, college and career awareness and collaborative communication skills.
Pinnacle parent Aaron Gonzalez, whose senior son serves as treasurer of the Crazies, told the board that clubs and athletics are interconnected and asked members to recognize “the importance of the clubs to athletics.”
Board member Jessica Wani said the organization had made an impression on her Pinnacle High freshman son after orientation.
“Let me tell you what I did hear about and it was the Crazies,” Wani said. “They must be leaving quite the impression because my kid's not usually one to come home and say he wants to join all the clubs and that's the club he wants to join.”
Two Pinnacle parents spoke in support of allowing the Crazies to travel with other student groups.
Parent Erin Gonzalez, whose son is a senior and serves as treasurer of the organization, asked the board to recognize how student clubs and athletics can support one another.
“We're just asking that you recognize the importance of the clubs to athletics,” Gonzalez said.
Another Pinnacle parent, Danelle Kelling, told the board parents wanted to demonstrate there was “significant parental support” for the trip and for the opportunities it provides students.
Kelling said field trips can be particularly meaningful for students who have had few opportunities to travel.
“Many of the students that were attending these types of events have never been outside of Arizona,” Kelling said. “I think it's very good when we do have the opportunity for our students to do this in a safe manner that is chaperoned, that we allow this.”
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Meet Stacy Stacy Mantle is joining the team at Independent Newsmedia, Inc. as an Education Solutions journalist, thanks to a grant from the Arizona Community Collaborative. She has a long history in education that ranges from teaching junior high and middle school to developing curriculum and standards-based assessments.
Community: A longtime advocate for animal welfare, Stacy is deeply involved in rescue efforts and volunteers with several nonprofit organizations.
Random Fact: Once upon a time, she shared her home with a pet coyote and two wolf hybrids. The experiences were wild enough to become the subject of her first book!
Education: She holds a BA in English with a minor in Political Science, a Post-baccalaureate in Secondary Education, and an MBA with a emphasis on Marketing.
Hobbies: In her spare time, Stacy writes fast-paced urban fantasy novels, crafts small-batch artisan soap, and is always up for hiking or off-roading through the Arizona wilderness with her husband of 23 years.
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