General Overview:

Administrators are concerned to continue Baker Charter's ODS as a yearly 4 day sleep away camp due to not "enough" students being enrolled in the camp. Regardless of the amount of children who attend, Outdoor School is an important and influential experience for both the 6th grade attendees and High School student leaders. In efforts to gain more parents to sign up students, it is in plan to reconstruct the ODS camp by breaking it into several regional camps and switching leadership onto the local teachers/advisors. Many believe that this change will not in fact cause more sign ups considering regional events have had a hard time getting students to come. This petition is created as a way to say "We don't want change. This is important to us. So hear our voices."

Letter of Appeal:

It has very sadly come to my attention the plans to reconstruct or cancel the future yearly BWA Outdoor Schools. I attended as a leader last year October 2025 and would whole-heartedly consider it one of the best weeks of my life. I as well as other high school leaders and ODS staff were really looking forward to another fun and successful year. With that, I write this letter to appeal against any plans to change the yearly Outdoor School plans that Cami Beatty and Megan Alameda have put so much love and hard work into. While my voice alone may be too quiet for you to hear, please listen to and consider what my fellow leaders and I have to argue. 

It is my understanding that the reason for change is concern that not enough parents enroll their children into ODS. That roughly 30% of 6th grade BWA students attend and it is preferred to have that number above 50%. To do that I hear it has been “decided” that we want to break things regionally and shift running these new camps onto local staff/teachers/advisors. The whole idea sounds very complicated. It’s going to take a lot of work as of this moment, it does not appear to me the school knows what they are going to do; it's all up to each region to just “figure out”. I feel like Megan and Cami have put so much of their time and dedication into this project. Without them, this opportunity would never have been possible, or nearly as successful as they have made it. Everyone who has been involved in Outdoor School I believe agrees that no matter how small the statistics seem to the higher ups, there are so many kids being benefited from this experience. 

That makes me question the motives in this decision; Is it that we want more kids engaged or does it not feel like there are enough kids for it to be worth the expense of putting on? I argue that turning ODS into a regional experience will actually not gain more students to show up, in fact, I predict that there will be even less. If we turned outdoor school into a day camp, parents would be required to drive out twice a day, several days a week to provide transportation to and from camp. This is a difficult thing for many families as it's not accommodating of busy schedules. Additionally, think about the activities Baker already puts on. If my understanding is correct, isn't it difficult to find enough staff to put on these events and also concerns that not many students show up? Likewise, if it is monetary concerns we are looking at; wouldn't it cost more to host several camps around the state for an idea we don't even guarantee will bring us more students? There are a few flaws I am seeing in the plans of reconstructing Baker Charters annual ODS when we already have a perfect camp experience created. I can also connect onto this on a very personal level. During my 6th grade year I attended a day-camp Outdoor School. And that experience for me was so underwhelming in comparison to what these kids got at our camp last year. I wish I was given such an amazing and fun learning opportunity these kids got. I believe the school should focus more on quality instead of quantity in this decision making process. 

Also, as you are reading this, you may ask yourself “why does this kid care so much?” Well, it is not just me. While I was the first to push action against the deconstruction of the ODS I love and care about, many other leaders and staff also express the same feelings. Many are confused and wanting to know why this happens to be the case, because in our eyes so many kids showed up. It was a big, fun, and oh so eventful week. We got to see so much about who we were as people in this fun stage where we are learning about life. I believe that many, if not all of us, were shocked by how much camp actually taught us and allowed us to experience. I most of all enjoyed making friends, learning how to lead and teach, and the deep one-on-one connections I made with campers. 

My most memorable student experience was a sweet boy named Charlie who claimed that out of all the high school leaders; I was his favorite and I made camp so much better for him. On the last day of camp he went up on stage and passed out shells to the leaders. I was the last one to go up because he had already given me a shell the day before so I wanted everyone else to get a chance to have one. Little did I know I was rewarded with the largest shell he could find he saved specifically for me. He said it up there in front of everyone, those words, and I felt so proud of him. Not of myself, no. I was happy that I gave him such a great time at camp, but  more happy that this sweet boy allowed himself to grow, and have fun, and I hope with all my heart he’s going to continue to just flourish in life and find those safe people like I was to him. Those kinds of moments I had with the students are what make me care about this so deeply. I don’t want that to be taken away from anyone, and believe camp should continue how it does.

With all of that being said, I acknowledge the concerns brought up by admins even if I do not understand or agree with them. Although, if we want more kids to attend ODS without changing the camp we already have and love, I have some proposals on how to do that. First I would say to advertise it better. If we want more people to enroll their kids, we need to make sure more parents see it. We can send more emails as ODS sign ups approach. I am sure we could make them better with more appealing information and flashier imagery. We could post on the Baker Charter’s Instagram and Facebook pages. Younger people like us could even work to make those posts better than just a plain text and points. There is also Parentsquare which I know a lot of parents look at. To take advertising this even further, we could give out ODS information to parents who are signing their kids up for other Baker events. They are already showing their trust in taking their kids to these activities, perhaps they would want to hear about a fun learning camp opportunity. Aside from spreading more awareness about Outdoor School, my biggest proposal is that we open the camp to more grade levels. If we are concerned about there not being enough students to make the price of camp worth it; allow 5th and 6th grade students to attend, or allow 6th and 7th grade students to attend. It is not a crazy idea whatsoever, and in fact it’s easier to do that than any other option to encourage more kids to show up. Kids who come one year may find that they really love it, parents will spread that to each other and perhaps in the second year there will be even more showing up. I also find that there are a lot of sibling sets who are a grade level apart, this could allow for kids to feel better with someone they know while also inviting more students. 

In conclusion, I want to fight for ODS to continue as is, and so do those around me. I have worked to encourage others to write their own letters of appeal. Additionally, I have started a school petition to show the amount of supportive individuals who agree with my views. I would really appreciate it if you take our concerns into consideration when deciding to reconstruct our camp. Thank you for taking your time to read this letter, I put a lot of thought into writing it. I would love to see if our actions can make an impact.