Federal Way Public Schools (FWPS) “Global Learning Initiative” was on display during the school board’s Oct. 29 meeting, with students from Thomas Jefferson High School relating their experiences so far with Brighton Secondary College in Melbourne, Australia.

Sunwoo Kang, ASB Director of Technology at Thomas Jefferson, shared a short video of TJ students speaking with Brighton students via Skype.

“One of our ideas is to make a video with Brighton that would help show how we united for a cause,” Kang said.

The two groups are attempting to coordinate bake sales where they’d sell the “cultural” foods from each country. For instance, the Brighton students would sell American foods, while the TJ students would sell traditional Australian foods.

“It will be similar to a bake sale, except it’d be a school-wide event,” said Allen Lunde, ASB Secretary at TJ. “We’ve been communicating that, and that’d be the main source of funding.”

The funding would go toward an idea of “Go Blue,” said Andrew Min, ASB Treasurer at TJ.

“One of the issues at hand is 2.5 billion people on this Earth do not have access to clean water, whether it’s for sanitary reasons or consumption,” Min said. “And that’s one issue we can hope to combat in cooperation with the Brighton school.”

TJ and Brighton would support the idea of making sure more people have access to usable water by supporting a local charity that operates internationally.

“We are working with the school in Australia to raise money for a charity called waterfirst.org,” said Jayden Zwick. “We’re really excited about this because it’s an international initiative. We’re selling the Australian food here, the Australians are selling our food there. We’re working with a charity that’s based in Seattle but serves people in Ethiopia, India, Bangladesh and Honduras. We’re very excited about that because it’s an incredible international initiative.”

Dylan DeTray, another TJ student in attendance on Oct. 29, also noted the partnership with Brighton is more than just this fundraiser.

“The sophomores at our school…100 students have been assigned a pen pal at Brighton College, so they’ve been corresponding by email,” he said.

“We’re excited to see, the idea of being global citizens come to fruition,” said board member Tony Moore. “You guys are the ones who will be the pioneers, so to speak, of that venture. So good luck as you continue to develop relationships around the globe.”

Superintendent Rob Neu noted that Brighton was one of the schools that district and board officials visited in their recent trips as part of the Global Learning Initiative. Neu called Brighton’s principal Julie Podbury a “pistol.” Brighton itself is considered an international leader in developing relationships around the world, Neu said.

“They are a school who annually hosts 100 Chinese students a year, and have become a highly recognized school in Australia,” Neu said. “The fact you are partnering with them and moving the work forward with them is extremely exciting.”

Global learning initiative: Background info

Neu recently wrote in an essay that the Global Learning Initiative “will ensure our students are prepared for a more competitive, diverse and interconnected world than the one we grew up in.”

To prepare for the initiative, Neu and school board members have embarked on “study missions” to learn from other educators and build relationships abroad.

From April 1 through May 1, Neu and school board president Tony Moore traveled to China at a cost of $33,350. As a result, a delegation from Beijing’s Northeast Yucai Experimental School toured two Federal Way schools in August. Neu and Moore had visited the Beijing school during their trip.

Neu also traveled to Indonesia from June 20 to July 3. The total cost was $4,082.97. Neu paid approximately $1,400 for hotel costs during that trip, according to the district.

In addition, Neu took a short trip to South Korea from July 6 to July 12. The majority of the costs were paid by the government of South Korea, although the school district contributed $679.12.

Neu and three board members — Ed Barney, Claire Wilson and Angela Griffin — recently took a controversial trip to Europe. Starting with an initial flight to Amsterdam, the school district officials traveled to nearly 20 schools in Finland, Scotland and England. The 19-day trip cost taxpayers about $60,000, according to the district.

Several community members have criticized the trip as a junket, with some saying the money should have funded more urgent matters such as classroom expenses and staffing.

Neu has vigorously defended the Europe trip, along with previous overseas trips in 2013, as necessary for gaining insight from foreign schools and students. He said the trips could lead to sponsorships and revenue sources that fund the initiative.

All costs for these trips came from the district’s general fund. No more overseas trips are planned for this school year, according to the district.

The school district’s overall budget is about $213.3 million. The combined cost of these trips (funded in two different budget cycles) reflect about 0.04 percent of the total budget.