Miller Place Parents Press Board to Reinstate Washington Trip

For years, eighth grade students at looked forward to the Washington DC trip, until the trip was cut in the 2011-12 budget.

While current eighth graders will miss out on the experience, parents of next year’s class are pushing hard for the Board of Education to reinstate the trip for the 2012-13 year.

Parents Lori Murphy, Jennifer Leen, Christine Evola and Laura Walsh have led an effort to bring the trip back by creating a website, www.millerplacefordctrip.com, and gaining over 300 signatures on a petition for the Board of Education. The parents spoke to the Board at Wednesday’s meeting in the .

 “As I understand, parents contribute approximately $475 to send a child on the trip,” Murphy told the board. “We’re asking that the board reinstate [the trip] fully. I’m not saying that we wouldn’t be willing to do some fundraising around it, but $475 per family in these economic times is difficult.”

 Board member Michael Unger said the estimate of $475 was about right, but he could not confirm the approximate cost of the trip to the district, only saying that it would be lower than a $30,000 estimate by the parents.

“We’ll confirm something better for you,” Unger said. “We’re meeting with lawyers shortly to cover a couple other issues that we normally would and I believe the logistics of the DC trip are part of that discussion so it would be premature to say much more until we meet. But I do believe the number is appreciably lower than that.”

There are more than a few hurdles to overcome in order to get the trip reinstate. Aside from the obvious money issues, time is a factor since the trip is usually booked about a year in advance.

“We would normally be talking about the plans for the following year while we were there [on the trip],” said Superintendent Susan Hodun, a former Principal. “By the time we got back to school we would be doing paperwork for the next year’s trip.”

Since the trip usually takes place near the end of the school year, they are still ahead of schedule. Nonetheless, the wheels will have to be in motion soon, so the group is looking for a timely answer from the Board.

“It means a lot to the community,” Walsh said. “The children love it, it’s educational and I really think it’s something if we get together as a whole we can do. We’re asking for numbers, we’re willing to help, let’s get it done…for the kids.”