Los Alamitos pupils going to Washington

By Helen Davis
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — Top pupils from Los Alamitos Middle School in Grants will take off for Washington and Colonial Williamsburg, Va., next month.

Principal Joan Gilmore said that 29 pupils and 16 adults will travel with Junior Tours to the nation’s capital and the historic colonial town as part of their education in history and broad experience.

Pupils were invited to go on the trip based on their behavior and grade-point averages in the first quarter of the current school year, Gilmore told the Grants/Cibola County School Board at its regular meeting Tuesday evening.

The group will leave on June 2 and catch a nighttime tour of Washington before they check into their hotel. Other highlights in the capital include war memorials, museums, the changing of the guard at Arlington National Cemetery, the White House and the Library of Congress.

By midweek on the trip, the group will see Jamestown Island, where the first permanent American settlement was established, and get settled in Williamsburg, where they will take a day off to relax at Busch Gardens.

Pupils and adults will spend a half a day in Williamsburg to study how the early colonists lived day by day and then begin the trip home.

Superintendent Kilino Marquez told Gilmore and others on the Los Alamitos staff, “Please be careful.” Denise Sanchez assured the board that this is the 10th trip with Junior Tours and the company is reliable and experienced; they take care of everything and the adults can relax a little. School staff is also experienced in traveling with the student groups, she said. Gilmore said she has been on trips to New York and Philadelphia with Los Alamitos school groups in the past.

Those going on the trip are solely responsible for expenses, Gilmore said. The base cost is $1,159.00. Participants will also cover additional expenses they encounter on the trip.