Robotics students get $500 contribution toward trips – Fairfield Daily Republic

FAIRFIELD Fundraisers begin Monday for Fairfield-Suisun School District students to participate in robotics competitions in Houston and Kentucky.

The first fundraiser will take place Mondayat Marys Pizza Shack in Fairfield, with events to follow April 14 at Panda Express and May 3 at Chipotle.

Details about the fundraisers are available at http://www.facebook.com/grizzlybots.AHS.ArmiBots/.

School district trustees meeting Thursday reviewed a waiver of state law to allow the district to help pay for a $20,767 trip by eight students at Grange Middle School and Armijo High School to compete in the VEX Robotics World Championship scheduledApril 19-22 in Kentucky.

A second competition will take placein Houston and participation is estimated to cost about $10,000, said Dianne Halsey, an Armijo High School teacher who is adviser to the robotics team.

Competition this past weekend at a regional event garnered a Rookie All-Star Award for the Armijo students and qualified them for the competition next month in Houston, Halsey said.

The waiver of state law will return to the school board for potential action.

Solano County Supervisor Monica Brown, who retired as a Green Valley Middle School teacher, presented a $500 check from her personal funds to assist students.She urged support for the fundraising and said at Thursdays school board meeting that education will always be near and dear to my heart.

California Education Code does not allow school districts to pay expenses of studentsparticipating in field trip to other states, a staff report said.The Kentucky robotics competition with more than 16,000 participants is the worlds largest such event, according to the report.

The trip is both educationally and culturally enlightening for the predominantly low-income students, according to the report.

For more information about the robotics competition, send an email to[emailprotected].

Reach Ryan McCarthy at 427-6935 or [emailprotected].

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Robotics students get $500 contribution toward trips - Fairfield Daily Republic