Viking View

Divisional BB: The Divisional Basketball Tournament Brackets are posted to the school facebook page. It will be held at the MAC in Butte Feb. 23-25. Prices for admission are $10 for adults and $8 for students. The boys play West Yellowstone at 9:30 on Thursday and the girls play Twin Bridges at 12:30.

Secondary Ski Trip to Lookout Feb. 27: The bus will load at 7:30 AM and Leave at 7:45 AM. Do not be late. Expect to be back in Charlo between 6:00-6:30 PM.

Question of the Week: In an effort to improve communication we will start having a “Question of the Week”. If you have a question please email it to [email protected]. Then one of the questions submitted will be drawn to be addressed in the following week’s Viking View. Questions cannot involve personal situations among students, staff, or parents. They should be general in nature and related to public information.

This week’s question: What goes into the decision on whether to stay in a hotel vs travel back and forth during activities such as Sports, BPA, HOSA, Pep Band, Field Trips, Etc.

This is a great question and a very timely question as we are headed to Divisional Basketball in Butte this weekend. There are a ton of logistics involved with spending the night for activities.

  1. Is there an employee(s) willing to supervise students overnight? This is a big one as the responsibility is huge. Fewer and fewer people are willing take overnight trips because of the liability for being in charge of kids. Unfortunately things have happened with students across the state on overnight trips and the chaperone was blamed for it in some cases. It is understandable when staff want to avoid such situations
  2. Is there a bus driver willing to stay overnight? I think the scarcity of licensed bus drivers is well established. Trips also takes away from bus routes. It is not an easy thing to keep all of it running. We have drivers who have other jobs. We have drivers who have livestock, so staying overnight is sometimes very difficult for them.
  3. Is there a commitment from students to stay overnight? Sometimes kids do not wish to spend the night or they have other commitments. Sometimes there are family engagements for some kids.
  4. What is the philosophy of the coach/advisor? Some believe sleeping in their own bed is better for athletes/band members/etc. Kids are often on a bus so riding in the bus is routine where staying in a hotel is not. Routines are usually good for kids.
  5. What are the road reports like?
  6. What is the weather forecast?
  7. Are there rooms available?
  8. What is the status of the hotel? Is it clean? What’s its location? Do they provide breakfast? Can you plug in a diesel bus?
  9. Can you get enough rooms together at the same hotel? Reservations for teams are made months in advance by the Conference. Then once a school knows its team made the tournament it’s up to the school to commit to those rooms. If reservations are not made ahead of time then hotels might not have rooms or they might have to put two rooms upstairs and three rooms downstairs. This is not a deal breaker but it is more stressful for chaperones with supervision of kids.
  10. What is the schedule of events? Are games early or late?
  11. Is fuel and labor less expensive than hotels rooms? This is a moving target with fuel prices surging along with hotel prices. Additionally, hotels almost always require payment in advance nowadays at tournaments. In the old days they would allow you to wait and see if the team was playing the next day. Now they rarely work with schools on those issues. If you play the morning game in loser out action you have to pay ahead for that night or check out in the morning. Hotels will not allow the coach to call back after the morning game to make arrangements anymore.

Little Dribblers: A flyer went home to K-5 students with details on Little Dribblers. If you did not get one but want more information please call the office 644-2206.

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