California 2024

Mr. Groth, Mr. Cam, and Mr. Brubaker are excited to announce our next big trip as a music department to Southern California. This Smore will be a landing page for all important trip information, reminders, and documents.

Are you (your student) flying for the first time or need a reminder of what it is like to fly? Check out these flying tips from a different travel agent: https://www.kaleidoscopeadventures.com/flying-with-a-student-group/. These tips include:

1. What to Take on the Plane

2. Packing Dos and Don’ts

3. Surviving Security

4. Tips for Success

Our final meeting for our trip to California will be on Tuesday, February 27 at 6:15pm and mandatory for all attendees and chaperones. In this meeting we will discuss the final itinerary, flight details, expectations, prescription/medical protocol, and much more. If you are unable to attend, please contact either Mr. Groth, Teacher Cam, or Mr. Brubaker.

We will be using the Band app to communicate with all travelers and ask each student and chaperone to join: https://band.us/n/a4ad0cS69c5di

To help ease the day, Disneyland offers an app in the App store. We suggest travelers use is it during our visit. Tips and instructions on how to use it are below.

Students who take prescription medicine during the school day will follow normal school procedures with Mr. Groth, Teacher Cam, or Mr. Brubaker administering the medication. Any prescription medicine that is normally taken out of the school day (before bed time or at breakfast) will be the student's responsibility to store, manage, and administer. If families do not want their student to be responsible for storage, managing, or administering these medicines, their doctor will have to send over doctors orders for one of the teachers to administer those.

Out of respect for our students privacy, we will not share flight and hotel information on this page. We will provide a hard copy at the final meeting. Any parent/guardian unable to attend who would like this information should contact Mr. Groth, Teacher Cam, or Mr. Brubaker.

We are asking that students with instruments the size of Viola/Alto Sax or smaller take their instruments on board as one of their unchecked bags. Larger instruments like bass clarinet, bari sax, euphoniums, and cellos will need to be checked. We are asking all students who play these instruments use a school instrument for the trip instead of their personal instrument.

Throughout the trip, this is a wonderful way to demonstrate the good humans within our programs, school, and community. Behavior both in language and action should be thoughtful and positive representation of all groups.

Free time at our hotel will be limited throughout the trip. However, the following expectations are in place.

• While at the hotel, students are expected to stay on hotel grounds.
• Students are not allowed into each other's rooms. If students want to visit with friends, they can do so in the lobby prior to room checks.
  
• Room checks will happen each night and each student must be visibly seen by their chaperone for the room check to be complete (meaning, they cannot be in the bathroom or shower during that time). Once checked, students doors will be taped and they will be expected to remain in their rooms until 7:00am wake up call.
  
• Approximately after 30-60 minutes after room checks, we will make a call for lights out.
  
• We are not the only people in the hotel. We need to be respectful of other guests by keeping noise levels appropriate to the situation and location.
• If traveling to the lobby, vending machines, etc. within the hotel, students should travel in groups of 2 and never alone.
• No bare feet when moving through the hotel.
  

During our time in California, we will have a bus we will use to get around town from Anaheim to San Diego. Here are our expectations for when we are on the bus:

• There will not be any open seat on the bus. All students and adults will have to share a set of seats. Students will not be allowed to sit on the floor or the aisle.
• Everyone should remain seated while the vehicle is in motion.
• If the bus has a restroom, keep in mind the following analogy: it operates like a bank.
  

During our time in the various parks, students should keep in mind the following expectations:

• Students should travel in groups of four. If a director or chaperone sees a group of less than 4, they will ask that group to spend the remainder of the day with them.
  
• Students will physically check in with chaperones once every 3-4 hours while in the park. These spots will be determined by the chaperone and the students. Students MUST check in with THEIR chaperone, not just any chaperone.
  

This is a reminder that the final trip payment is due in full on January 1.

We are now figuring out hotel rooms for our stay and need to solidify rooms.

https://forms.office.com/r/kRQaEkhN67

• To have a room request go through, all 4 people in a room must request each other and submit the form. That means everyone has to fill out the form.

• Roommates need to be of the same gender that is listed in Infinite Campus. If you or your family have a concern about this, please contact Teacher Cam, Mr. Brubaker, and Mr. Groth to come up with a solution.
• If a room isn't filled, a student may be placed in your room.

• Room requests are not guaranteed to be filled per director discretion

If you're at a loss at who's going on the trip, it is everyone that has been CC'd on the email. I would ask them before you submit the form to make sure that everyone is on the same page.

We are reaching out to let you know you will soon see an increase in the cost of the California trip in the online portal. Due to the smaller number of travelers registered, the price per person has increased by $75. That means the final payment for students will be $305 instead of the originally scheduled $230.

The other thing to be aware of is that the insurance cost is based on a percentage of the total trip price. After the online price is adjusted, all travelers who purchased insurance will receive a notification of unpaid balance. Because the insurance must be purchased with the initial deposit, the system recognizes those additional insurance dollars as an unpaid balance. Please log in and pay that small difference as soon as possible.

We appreciate your patience and understanding.

Did you miss our trip meeting? You can find a copy of our presentation here: https://omahaps-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/ebrubak096_ops_org/EW8rR1stEEtEvsAuy1X6PXUB73hAge7cnJYZ5JUIfZZLHw?e=f5xjec

Package Includes:

➢Round Trip Air Transportation from Omaha to Southern California

➢All Ground Transportation in Southern California via Deluxe Motor Coach

➢4 Nights Deluxe Hotel Accommodations

➢4 Deluxe Breakfasts

➢Visit to Balboa Beach

➢Visit to Downtown Disney District

➢2-Day Park Hopper Pass to Disneyland & Disney’s California Adventure

➢Band & Orchestra Disney Imagination Campus Combined Workshop

➢Choir Disney Imagination Campus Workshop

➢Band, Choir, & Orchestra Performances at a Disney Property

➢Visit to Mission Park Beach

➢Boxed Lunch

➢Admission to San Diego Zoo

➢Visit to Old Town San Diego

➢Group Dinner at Café Coyote (or comparable)

➢Visit to Hollywood Walk

➢Tour of TCL Chinese Theatre

➢Admission to Universal Studios

➢All Taxes, Tips and Tolls

➢Tour Director provided from Travel With Barb upon request and availability

Price Package per person is $2190.00 based on 185 students in quads, 22 adult chaperones in doubles and 4 free directors in single occupancy.

*If required, luggage handling is NOT included in this bid.

Trip payments will be made over the period of 10 months are due on the first of each month. The first payment is due May 1. It is really important that all travelers stay current and up to date on these payments throughout the process. When we receive fundraising efforts, we will apply that credit to accounts and you will notice a change in amount due.

We cannot require those attending the trip to purchase travel insurance but we do strongly recommend it. When registering on the portal, every passenger will have the option to register for Standard insurance, register for CFAR (Cancel for Any Reason) insurance, or decline insurance coverage. One of these must be selected before the traveler is considered fully registered. All the information regarding each type of insurance and the coverage allowances are linked in the portal.

For the convenience of travelers, the option to purchase insurance coverage is located directly in your portal, however travelers could choose to decline this insurance and choose to purchase something else on their own. This is your legal right.

We have a limited number of spots available on the trip. If you are an adult wanting to chaperone the trip, please contact Mr. Groth (david.groth@ops.org), Mr. Cam (jestin.cam@ops.org), and Mr. Brubaker (kyle.brubaker@ops.org) stating your interest. We will then send you instructions on how to register. You will also need to keep current on your payments for the trip.

We are asking all families to register for our 2024 Spring Break trip to Disneyland in California. This is where we will be able to store important information necessary. All payments will go directly to the travel agent. Please see the attached document below for instructions on how to register below. First payments will be due on May 1.

To begin, we are asking just students register. Mr. Groth, Mr. Cam, and Mr. Brubaker will be working with those adults who are wanting to chaperone for this trip and provide them specific instructions.

*When registering, be sure to read the document in it's entirety.*

Both the instrumental and vocal boosters will look to provide opportunities throughout the year to help reduce the overall cost of the trip. We will share our fundraising efforts in this section which we hope to begin before the 2022-2023 school year is finished.

When we receive fundraising efforts, we will apply that credit to accounts and you will notice a change in amount due.

We have partnered with Krispy Kreme through GroupRaise and we will be selling dozen boxes of original glazed donuts for $15. 50% (yes, 50%!) of the proceeds will come back to us and help us get our students to southern California (and Disneyland in case you're wondering).

Here's Mr. Cam's link to purchase your boxes: https://www.groupraise.com/oc/13074/5T6H6

If you are unable to purchase boxes, please share and help us spread the word!

No! Registration is open until October 2.

Yes! After confirming with the travel agency, there is no set minimum number for the trip to run. It is our intent that we will follow through with this trip over Spring Break. There are two big impacts that numbers will have on this trip. Both are reasons why we want more to attend the trip!

1. There are minimum participant numbers for ensembles to both perform and receive a workshop. If we don't meet those numbers, then groups will lose the opportunity. The rest of the trip would happen as planned.
2. We will need to rebid a few things on the trip like charter buses. Depending on those costs, we could see a slight increase in the last payment of the trip for those that are attending.

You can cancel the trip yourself in the portal. If this is you, we need this done ASAP (Friday, September 22) so we can get an accurate rebid of our trip contracts and know what our group will actually need to pay.

Barring an unforeseeable natural or man made disaster, the trip will happen. Much like the doctor's office having to explain everything that could go wrong in a procedure (even a minor procedure), the travel agency has a legal and ethical obligation to give worst case scenarios. That is why we suggest (but do not require) to purchase trip insurance.

Nope! The trip needs to be paid in full at the beginning of 2024. We opened the payment portal in June to make it easier to pay in smaller amounts.

Yes! It is on the way. We have had a couple of instrumental music parents who are taking charge and helping line up fundraising in the coming months. We are looking for a family member on the vocal side of our program who is interested in helping as well. Fundraising will be dedicated specifically to reduce the cost of the trip for the group.

No. Unfortunately, we cannot track individual fundraising for trips because that is illegal. The IRS considers this practice to be income and therefore taxable. Therefore, any and all fundraising will be used to bring the total cost of the trip for the group.

No! They will be able to participate in all but a group's performance/clinic will be determined by total number of members traveling.

After we receive the check from the fundraising organization, there will be some time to process but we will be able to provide credits to the trip portal. This will take a couple of weeks after each fundraiser.