JOHNSTOWN - Area school districts have seen varying degrees of interest among their senior classes concerning annual senior trips. But questions remain about whether such trips are affordable, exclude some students, are held too far from home or are even necessary.
Board members of the Greater Johnstown School District Board of Education recently debated whether the roughly $670 cost of the Johnstown High School class of 2010's senior trip to Grad Bash in Orlando, Fla., is unfair to some students. That trip is planned for April 24 to 27.
Superintendent Katherine Sullivan said $667 is the maximum cost any member of the JHS's senior class of 158 students would have to pay for the trip because the cost can be knocked down through a point system. The school district allows students to work at concession stands and school-organized functions to attain points that allow them to deduct costs from the trip.
"They started all that [gaining points] when they were freshmen," Sullivan said.
She said the planned site for the next senior trip seems to be popular with the students.
"They've gone to Disney World several times," Sullivan said.
She said less than half of the 158-member JHS senior class - about 67 students - has placed deposits to go on the senior trip. Sullivan said the final list of who is going will probably be submitted soon by the class advisor.
When the class held its first mandated meeting in September, she said only about half of the students indicated they wanted to go on a senior trip. Some of the ideas raised by students - such as a hunting trip or a trip to Hawaii - were "not valid," she said. Finally, Sullivan said, Disney World was deemed as a secure place for students to travel and was chosen.
Sullivan said the class of 2009 also went on its senior trip to Disney World. Only 38 seniors attended. Sullivan said the trip also cost more last March - $731 - when the class of 2009 went.
Leslie Buggeln-Bosworth, chairwoman of the Greater Johnstown School District Board of Education's Academic-Extracurricular Committee, said the JHS senior class has been going to Florida for several years. She said a senior trip is necessary and should be a "special" event. Buggeln-Bosworth said trips don't have to be scheduled for the Great Escape or New York City, where many of the students have already been before.
She said there is usually ample time to narrow down who is interested in going and who can work harder at affording the trip.
"The kids are told their freshmen year they can earn points," Buggeln-Bosworth said.
The issue of exclusion doesn't always fit the class trip issue, she said, because "there's always going to be some kids that just don't want to go."
But for the students who want to go, she said, a senior trip should be special because they work so hard to attend.
"It's all about choices in life," Buggeln-Bosworth stated. "You better learn that early."
At Gloversville High School, the scheduling of a senior trip isn't a sure thing.
On June 8, 2007, the GHS senior class went on a New York City cruise for $50. The class of 2008 took a senior trip for $20 to the Great Adventure in New Jersey.
The GHS class of 2009 went nowhere. Gloversville Enlarged School District Superintendent Robert DeLilli said he's not sure if the GHS class of 2010 is planning a senior trip, although there has been talk of one.
DeLilli, who had a son graduate with the class of 2009, said a trip for that class never got off the ground.
He said the class of 2009 was planning on going to the Great Escape in Lake George, but the diistrict's Board of Education wasn't too keen on the overnight part of it.
"I don't believe it's a tradition similar to the prom," DeLilli said. "I think it varies in extravagance."
He said the concept of class trips is to give the class an "experience they'll never forget," but sometimes the trip may be several states away. For example, DeLilli said when he was superintendent of the Wheelerville Union Free School District, the graduating eighth graders went on a trip to New York City to take in some of the cultural sites.
"Preferably, I'm more in favor of a senior trip that combines culture and education with fun activities," Oppenheim-Ephratah Central School District Superintendent Dan Russom said. He said some senior trips end up being all about an amusement park or a resort area.
Russom said Oppenheim-Ephratah has had senior trips all four years he's been superintendent, although the numbers of those participating may vary. He said the seniors have gone to places such as Nashville and New York City.
He said the "economics of the class" will dictate where the senior class ends up going.
At the Northville Central School District, Superintendent Kathy Dougherty said her class of 2010 plans to go to Disney World for about the same price as the JHS trip - about $500 to $700 per student. She said out of roughly 50 seniors, about half will be take the trip.
"I think it's a great idea," Dougherty said of senior trips.
She said Northville students also earn money for the trip by working concession stands.
"It's really rare when any student has to pay the entire amount," Dougherty said.
There isn't as much interest in senior trips at Mayfield High School, where Principal Rob Husain said one hasn't been held for about five years.
Husain said the Mayfield class of 2010 wants to go to Florida - having settled on that trip among other choices of Myrtle Beach and Nashville. But at this point, 44 of the 88 members of the senior class need to sign up and that's probably not going to happen.
Broadalbin-Perth Central School District Superintendent Stephen Tomlinson said his district still offers the option of a trip.
"We do when there's interest for a senior trip," he said. "I can recall a year or two when there wasn't [a trip]."
Last school year, the Broadalbin-Perth Central School District Class of 2009 went to Washington, D.C. But Tomlinson said only 30 to 40 of the 150 eligible seniors visited the nation's capital as one of their last public school events.
"It seems over the years, there's less and less interest," Tomlinson said.