On Sept. 26 the Lopez Island School District was informed that the district has not been included in the 2013 international trip to Japan, in which they have been participating for many years.

The study trips to Japan, in which Lopez High School students have been participating for 12 years, have been funded by repeated re-application to and funding by a grant from the Freeman Foundation. The local program has been under the leadership of former Lopez teacher Kurt Jacobs and Program Director and former Lopez teacher Pat Burleson and their organization Japanese Connections. While not a school-funded program, Lopez School has contributed significantly to the program and Lopez students have benefited greatly from being a part of this program since its inception in 2000, as have Anacortes School District students for several of those years, and Orcas Island School District students who participated for the first time last school year.The director of the program has informed Lopez School officials that, due to funding issues,

Lopez School will not be included this year in the trip. Orcas Island School students will be making the trip this school year. The future of funding to Lopez School has yet to be determined.

“These trips to Japan, and the program that has been built around them, have been an important and much-valued component of our overall international trip and foreign studies program,” said Lopez School Principal Lisa Shelby. “The district remains strongly committed to the tremendous educational value of foreign travel and study, including Japan.”