Members of the Seymour Middle School Class of 2024 planning to go on the eighth grade trip to Washington, D.C., will take a different mode of transportation.
It will be wheels up as the group heads to the nation’s capital.
For this year’s trip and in years past, the school has worked with Brightspark Travel to arrange the travel by bus.
SMS officials, however, recently learned of Brightspark’s change in policy regarding overnight trips. Bus drivers are no longer allowed to drive overnight.
“The D.C. trip that we always go on requires overnight travel to get to Washington, D.C., so under the new guidelines, we would have to add two nights of a hotel stay for the trip — one on the way and one on the way back,” Assistant Principal Laci Skidmore said while addressing the Seymour Community School Corp. board of education during a meeting April 11.
That would remove a day of trip activities, and students would need an additional day off from school, too, she said.
The cost would be $1,449, which is an increase of more than $300 per person compared to last year, Skidmore said.
Another change for 2024 is Brownstown Central Middle School eighth-graders will not be joining SMS on the trip.
“We usually partner with them and they go with us, and they will not be doing that,” Skidmore said.
Due to the changes, school officials reached out to Brightspark and asked for a quote to fly to D.C. Skidmore said many other schools use that mode of transportation.
“Flying would save the two-night hotel stay, allow us not to miss a day of school and get the same amount of activities in D.C. that we normally do,” she said.
Even better, the quote is $80 cheaper than the current travel option with hotel stays. The cost would be $1,369 per person.
“So with all that being said, we recommend that the D.C. trip itinerary with flying and three days in Washington, D.C., be our official package for the next school year,” Skidmore said.
She asked for the board to waive the first reading and go straight to a vote because the quote has an expiration date.
“The quote for the D.C. packet with air travel is currently valid, and we would like to lock in that price,” she said.
Board President Art Juergens said he thinks the kids will like that option, and he asked for a motion to waive the first reading. That went on to be approved 7-0.
Then he asked for a motion to approve the eighth grade trip to Washington, D.C., in 2024 that includes air travel. That also received a unanimous 7-0 vote.