Students looking to end the East Lansing School District’s ban on travel received a promising sign.

But the green light could still turn red depending on Superintendent Tom Giblin’s decision.

“We are still going to ban trips out of the United States, but the other trips are going to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis,” Giblin said.

The reversal came during Monday night’s school board work session, and in response to East Lansing High School students’ concerns. Students staged a protest against the ban during school hours on Jan. 12 and made pleas at school board meetings.

The decision to enforce the ban came in November after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Giblin will make the decisions on which trips will be possible outside of the Michigan border, he said. Some of the trips that might be available to students would be trips to museums in Chicago and to Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio.

These trips will be decided on the qualifications of educational merit, location and duration.

The school will not allow students to spend more than one day on the trip, Giblin said.

But facing budget cuts, the school is uncertain whether field trips will be further affected.

Most of the district’s $32 million budget for this year has already been spent, Giblin said. The district is hoping to have save $4,000-$5,000 this year.

“It would potentially be a consideration, but most of the trips are done through fund raising,” Giblin said. The school also still has most of its $10,000 snow removal budget available, depending on how mild the winter stays, Giblin said.

Meanwhile, the district wants students to know part of the reason for banning trips that lie outside U.S. borders has to do with the protection of non-naturalized students attending the schools, said Susan Schmidt, president of the school board.

“We have a very large percentage of children that are not naturalized citizens. If there was an incident, and if they lock down the boarders, it could create some problems for us,” she said.

But the cuts in the budget may only affect transportation.

Money spent on fuel and bus drivers could have an impact on the budget, Schmidt said.

Senior Brett Gillespie was surprised when he heard the announcement, but was still a little disappointed the decision came too late for him to go to Washington, D.C.

Gillespie helped organize the students to protest the ban and went before the school board asking the ban be removed.

“I learned a lot through the whole process, but I think a lot of people learned if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything,” he said.