By Scott Brinton
The Calhoun choir's trip to compete in the prestigious Music in the Parks competition at Walt Disney World in Florida had been canceled, along with 11 other Bellmore-Merrick School District student trips.
Dr. Thomas Caramore, the district superintendent, and the school board decided during a March 19 budget hearing that the risk of terrorism was too high when the war in Iraq broke out to allow student travel.
In particular, they said, Walt Disney World was cited as a potential terrorist target, with the Federal Aviation Administration declaring the air space above the amusement park as a no-fly zone.
Frey, like many of the more than 100 people attending last Wednesday's April school board meeting, came to voice anger over the district's decision to cancel the Walt Disney World trip. She told the board and Caramore, "That was my dream, to go to Florida, and you crushed my dream."
The majority of parents and students at the meeting were from the Calhoun music program, though there were a handful of parents from Mepham High School and Grand Avenue Middle School as well.
Earlier during the almost three-hour session, Caramore had said that district officials believed there was the possibility of a terrorist attack, and they thus could not allow students to travel. Their sole concern, he said, was "student safety."
"The responsibility for school-sponsored trips rests with the district," Caramore said.
He also said, "Almost all districts in the county decided not to allow national travel."
At Calhoun, the national Music in the Parks competition is a longstanding tradition. The Crescendo choir had won the competition six straight years before 2002. Last year the district also canceled the trip to Walt Disney World because of terrorist threats.
Taking part in the contest -- that is, performing on a Walt Disney World stage -- had been Frey's dream since she was in ninth grade, she said. As a freshman, she had noticed photographs of Calhoun students at the Music in the Parks competition taped to a music department wall. Then and there, she decided that she wanted take part in the contest.
Frey didn't make the choir in ninth or 10th grades, she said. She was ecstatic when she earned a place as a junior, believing she would compete at Walt Disney World. Her dream, however, was not to be.
The school board didn't budge from its decision last week. Members did, however, offer sympathy for the students. Trustee Janet Goller, of Bellmore, said toward the end of the night, "It's really a sad situation to watch the dreams of our children taken away.
"This is not easy for us," Goller said. "Our hearts break for you."
The statement prompted Jane Piccirillo, mother of a Calhoun music student, to stand up from her seat and thank Goller for showing compassion toward the students.
The moment's congeniality, however, followed an evening of heated debate among parents, students and school officials. More than once, board President Alyse Middendorf, of North Merrick, had to call for order.
At one point, the audience laughed at a statement by Caramore that he had misjudged Calhoun's depth of feeling toward the Music in the Parks competition. Caramore responded, "I've been in the district 26 years, and I really resent being laughed at."
Several parents said they didn't question district officials' decision to cancel all trips until further notice. That was their right and responsibility, they said.
The parents did, however, wonder about the district's handling of the decision. For one, they said, the vote was taken during a lightly publicized -- and lightly attended -- budget hearing at which there was no expectation the matter would be discussed or voted on.
Pointing to the 100-plus members in the audience, John Piccirillo, president of the Calhoun Music Boosters Association, said the board had voted "without any of these people here" to speak their minds.
Trustee Sherry Skolnik, of Bellmore, responded that the board had voted publicly. "We didn't sit in a dark room somewhere talking to ourselves," she said, adding, "The choice we made, I think, was a very good choice."
Several parents also said they had heard conflicting reports about whether they would be reimbursed for the $700 they paid for the trip to Walt Disney World. Several parents believed that little to nothing would be returned.
Caramore said that, from what he was told by other district officials, students would be out no more than $100. Returning money to students, however, would take time, to resolve unanswered questions.
For example, he said, many Calhoun parents had simply paid all or part of the $700 toward the Florida trip. Several students, however, had raised funds for the trip in varying amounts. The district was still sorting out whether fund-raised dollars could legally be applied toward reimbursements for money that students and parents had paid themselves.
Fund-raised monies must go to a student organization. In the case of the Walt Disney World trip, those monies were set aside in a music department account and earmarked for each student.
Caramore noted that at Bellmore-Kennedy High School, which also was to take part in the Music in the Parks competition, most of the trip was already paid for with fund-raised dollars. At Kennedy, students weren't allowed to contribute more than $200 to $300 toward the trip, as per district policy, the superintendent said. So students there can't be out more than that amount.
To further complicate matters, many Calhoun students were booked on American Airlines, which, parents said, refused to provide refunds for canceled tickets. Instead, the company offered electronic tickets, which had to be booked within seven days and were only good through Dec. 31. The tickets could not be transferred to another family member, but instead had to remain in the students' names.
Joseph Madden, a Calhoun parent, said, "It's a useless voucher." His child has no plans to use it before year's end because of work and school. "That's $245 I'm out," he said.
Meanwhile, Delta and JetBlue airlines, which other students from Calhoun and Kennedy high schools had booked flights with, were being more flexible in the vouchers they offered, allowing them to be transferred to other people.
Middendorf, the board president, said the district would immediately send a letter to American Airlines asking that the company be more flexible with its tickets.
Madden also questioned why the district decided to allow the trip in the first place, knowing that war with Iraq was possible. Calhoun's Walt Disney World trip was booked March 4, he said. "The war drums were beating."
Caramore said that, individually, parents could have decided at that point to keep their children at home rather than send them on the trip. The superintendent also said, "Nobody anticipated this war in Iraq."
Earlier in the evening, Caramore said the first discussion about field trips among Nassau County superintendents took place Feb. 7, at which time "the majority of districts were still going ahead with trips."
On March 10, Bellmore-Merrick principals and chaperones "began to raise questions" about field trips during troubled times. On March 17, the nation was on a level-orange terrorism alert, one level below red. Two days later, the school board canceled all trips, as did numerous other districts nationwide.
Many parents said the decision to cancel came as a surprise. They hadn't received a warning from district officials that trips might be stopped. One parent said that she hadn't received a notice from the district about the cancellations until March 27, the day her child was to take a field trip.
Additionally, Shannon Green, a 12th-grader from Calhoun's chapter of the Distributive Education Club of America, said that club members had checked how many DECA chapters had canceled trips to Orlando for an upcoming international competition. Green said Bellmore-Merrick was the only Long Island district to cancel the trip. She noted that Orlando is outside Walt Disney World and not included in the no-fly zone.
Green said, "We have worked for three years to earn the right to go to nationals. To have it take away so quickly, behind our back, was kind of hurtful."
Board members praised DECA's well-prepared presentation. Middendorf said the board would meet privately with DECA members to discuss the matter.
Many parents said the district was giving into fear by canceling field trips and, in doing so, allowing the terrorists to win while also setting a poor example for students. John Piccirillo said, "I will not teach my child to hide."
Trustee Charles Reinhardt, of North Bellmore, replied, "I would not forgive myself if anything happened" during a field trip.
