Going Places : Businesses Help Fund Scarce Field Trips for Inner-City Students

It was only a short five-mile bus ride Tuesday from their schoolyard to downtown, but for about 60 fifth- and sixth-graders from West Vernon Elementary School in South Los Angeles, the field trip to City Hall was a rare event, cause for celebration.

In the cash-strapped Los Angeles Unified School District, the time-honored tradition of class field trips to the zoo, museum or City Hall have been dramatically cut back. But thanks to the initiative of a handful of businesses, about 25,000 inner-city youths will be able to leave the confines of their classrooms and venture out into the real world for a lesson.

It took more than a year to organize, but Operation Field Trip is set to provide free bus service to schools, funded by a $50,000 donation from a group of law firms, banks and a bus company.

“I’ve never been to City Hall--is it big?” asked Lorenzo Barreto, 11, as he boarded the yellow school bus. “I guess it will be like seeing the President or something.”

Martha Sanchez, an attorney with an investment firm called AFIC International, was moved to organize the program more than a year ago. She said she had watched a television news report about children who had missed a field trip to the zoo because of miscommunication between school and zoo officials.

Because Laidlaw Transit Inc. is one of her firm’s clients, she persuaded them to donate another bus ride to those children. Later, when she found the field trips had been largely cut by the district budgeting ax, she did what any good attorney would do.

She set up a nonprofit corporation, waded through reams of insurance regulation and bureaucratic red tape and leaned on her wealthy clients to hand over money for a worthy cause.

“I’m a product of L.A. public schools and remember how important field trips were to me,” she said. “Most of these kids never get a chance to do the things we all take for granted, like a trip to the beach or City Hall.”

Although the huge school district is buffeted by numerous problems, Sanchez said that this was one small item that could immediately have an impact and create good memories for children.

“When our schools are in so much trouble, the value of field trips is very important,” said school board member Barbara Boudreaux.

In a ceremony attended by school officials and politicians, leaders called on other businesses to donate to Operation Field Trip, so that the program can extend its reach beyond 25,000 students.