By James Strope
Principal, Onslow Early College High School

EDITOR’S NOTE: Below, an eastern North Carolina principal shares one unique struggle students face after legislators failed to pass a budget on time.

JACKSONVILLE (April 29, 2026) – Odyssey of the Mind is a creative problem-solving competition that has been around since 1978.

The students select one of five problems and come up with creative solutions, with no outside help from coaches or parents. They have strict parameters on their budget, so they really have to use their creativity to build whatever is needed to solve their problem.

The Onslow Early College High School Odyssey of the Mind team is in their second year of existence. As a far-reaching dream, the team talked about what it might be like to go all the way to the World Competition.

The five kids on the team, Sarah, Austin, Chandler, Robbie, and Braddock, have been preparing and practicing after school three times per week since October. They have even come in on several Saturdays and on teacher workdays (when no other students were there).

In the state competition, we placed third this year for Problem 5! This qualifies our team to go to the World Competition at Iowa State University for the first time in our school’s history! Last year, we did not even qualify for the state competition! That is an amazing feat!

That brings us to our current dilemma, finding a way to get this team to the World Competition that will take place from May 27th-30th. There are five members on the team, one coach (me) and one parent chaperone. One team member’s parents are willing to drive all the way from Jacksonville to Iowa to transfer their props. We will need to cover air fare to and from the competition, lodging, and meals for the students. That puts our estimated cost, conservatively, at $14,250.

Our district, having three schools that qualified this year, is only able to come up with $5,000 in assistance. Thanks to generous donors, we’ve raised additional funds and are now very close to our goal, but still not quite there. As we are located on a community college campus, we’re unable to hold fundraisers at school. Our students were eager to do bake sales and help out the team, but I think they’ve overestimated the power of baked goods.

With a student population of only 189 and no state budget passed by the North Carolina legislature this year, resources are extremely limited. 

We’ve already cut costs wherever possible to make it this far. I do not take any extra pay for coaching and even obtained my CDL (Commercial Driver’s License)  to save money on bus drivers, operating the activity bus myself for free. Unfortunately, we cannot take activity buses across state lines and a charter bus would cost more than buying plane tickets for the team. 

If you want to donate to the team, visit https://onslow.schoolcashonline.com/Fee/Details/38923/250/False/True.