Preliminary plans have been set for 180 music students at High School North to travel to Germany next November to learn and perform at famed European theaters and opera houses. Music teacher Jon Enz and assistant principal Melissa Levine met with the Board of Education curriculum committee and school district’s senior administration, including new assistant superintendent for curriculum and assessment Martin Smith, on December 5 to outline every aspect of the trip.
The proposed trip will take place from Tuesday, November 6, to Monday, November 12, 2012 and would consist of touring the German cities of Berlin, Dresden and Leipzig. One potential highlight of the trip would be visiting Leipzig on the 23rd anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9.
Several stops in Berlin and Leipzig would include places where Johann Sebastian Bach wrote and performed classical music. Plans for three concerts are in the works: one in Dresden at the concert hall of Hochschule, noted for Carl Maria von Weber’s performances; an afternoon concert in Leipzig at the Thomas Kirch (church), a landmark for Bach; and an evening concert in Berlin on the last day of the trip.
Other destinations will be the Zinger Palace and Semper Opera House in Dresden; in Berlin the Charlottenburg Palace, Holocaust Memorial, Brandenburg Gate, and Rathaus Schoeneberg — where John F. Kennedy delivered his famous 1963 speech.
Board member Richard Kaye told Levine and Enz that it would be a great idea to show footage of JFK’s speech to students before they embark on the trip. He also brought up another idea: contacting Congressman Rush Holt’s office to have students visit the U.S. embassy in Berlin and possibly hold a performance.
Kaye expressed one major concern at the curriculum committee meeting, which was the cancellation and refund policy that the tour company would have in its agreement with WW-P in the event of an international crisis such as a terrorist attack. Kaye told Enz and Levine that he would not want students to lose any money that they invest in the trip in case there was a global impact on flying overseas. Smith shared details of refunds made when he had arranged trips to France and Spain for the Edison school district in November of 2001.
The proposed total cost to the school district would come to $26,860 which would include all the expenses for eight chaperones (at $2,095 each) plus $800 in travel insurance; $4,500 for buses to and from the airport; $2,800 for t-shirts and decals; a $500 fee for carrying large and heavy instruments on the airplane and $1,500 in gratuities for drivers and tour guides in Germany.
The total per-student cost of the trip would be $2,095 to cover all transportation and accommodations at three-star hotels. Three meals per day would be included, with the exception of two “lunch-on-your-own” days. Not included in the per-student cost would be travel insurance, gratuities for drivers and guides, beverages and any single rooms requested.
Consideration of needier families has also been outlined. Students who qualify for free and reduced lunches at school will receive financial assistance for the trip. As proposed, the school district will cover half the cost of the trip for such students and they would be responsible for the other half.
Firebird Fine Arts specializes in concert tours of eastern Europe and High School North worked with them for a trip to Prague in 2006. High School South has also conducted trips with the company, Levine said normally trips are scheduled 18 months ahead of time, which would have set the trip for spring 2013, but there was a date change made to allow more students to go on the trip. When full-week trips are planned over spring break religious holidays such as Passover and Easter Sunday coincide with that schedule. It the case of
next school year they respectively fall on March 25 and March 31, 2013. Other times of the year such as winter break and President’s Day weekend in February were considered but ultimately decided against due to factors including inclement weather and the high cost of travel around Christmas. With the new potential trip schedule Levine also wanted to make sure students would return in time for the beginning of Diwali on November 13, 2012.
