The White House Registration has begun for the annual spring vacation student tour of the nation's capital, a 30- year tradition for local schools.

The weeklong trip to Washing- ton, D.C., Colonial Williamsburg and Gettysburg is open to area middle and high school students in eighth grade and above, ac- cording to Donald Zimring, deputy superintendent of the Las Virgenes Unified School District. Zimring is a longtime organizer of the trips, along with Tom Johnsen, a teacher at Calabasas High School.

The 2007 trip will be the 30th year for the educational tour. It is sponsored by local teachers and has served more than 10,000 stu- dents.

Johnsen said that since the trip is a nonschool activity, schools will not provide any information. Parents will need to attend one of the five informational meetings. The 7:30 p.m. meetings provide an overview of the trip, a slideshow of previous tours and a question-and-answer period.

Four of the meetings are scheduled for the following dates:

+Mon., Oct. 9: Colina Middle School, Thousand Oaks

+Tues., Oct. 17: Sequoia Middle School, Newbury Park

+Mon., Oct. 23: Lupin Hill Elementary School, Calabasas

"We have learned so much from the past years that we have been able to continually fine-tune our itinerary to ensure the best trip possible," Johnsen said. "The en- tire cost of the trip, including air- fare, lodging, all meals, evening activities, sightseeing and tips is $1,310."

Students will spend a full day at the Smithsonian Institution, in- cluding the National Air and Space Museum. They'll attend a performance at Kennedy Center and visit several memorial sites, including the National Holocaust Museum.

Johnsen and Zimring have been planning the tours together for many years. Both said the trip is an exciting adventure for stu- dents and a tremendous educa- tional experience.

"We develop the itinerary as if it were a lesson plan," Zimring said. "We know the students will have fun, but we also know that this can be an incredible oppor- tunity for teaching as well."

To that end, pre-trip classes help students better appreciate what they will see and experience. "During the classes we review everything from the history of the city to current issues before Con- gress," Johnsen said. "When they arrive, they aren't just looking at buildings; rather they are entering a huge classroom geared for non- stop learning."

The tour focuses on the Civil War and visits to the battlefield at Gettysburg and Ford's Theater are scheduled. The Colonial Williamsburg

tour has been popular with stu- dents. The town is maintained as a near photograph of life in 1775. "It is living history at its best and has consistently been a highlight of the tour," Zimring said.

Organizers said minute-by- minute planning is the key to the trips' success. That success is un- derscored by the fact that the tours are routinely sold out and have lengthy waiting lists.

"One very satisfying aspect of the trip for us is that some of the teachers who serve as chaperons also participated in the trip as eighth graders a decade or more ago," Zimring said. For more information, call

Johnsen at (805) 499-1569 or Zimring at (818) 991-9059, or visit www.traveled2dc.com.