TAMPA, Fla. — The Hillsborough County school district is getting an earful from parents who say they could be out thousands of dollars after the district abruptly canceled out-of-state field trips that involve air travel.
Even though they booked those trips through their schools, some third-party travel companies are making it difficult to get a refund.
The cancelation comes after the Florida Department of Education issued new guidelines regarding the COVID-19 coronavirus.
A short time later, Hillsborough Schools announced it was pulling the plug on all out-of-state field trips that involve air travel.
For members of the orchestra at Plant high school, the cancellation itself was already disappointing enough.
In a couple of weeks, they were scheduled to play at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Now, not only is their trip canceled, but several parents say when they tried to get a refund, some of the travel companies that the schools used to book the trips told them that they would only take guidance from the Federal Government; so no refunds will be given.
Some families say that’s going to cost them thousands of dollars and suggest the school district look into reimbursing parents since it was their call to cancel the trip.
“You’ve got student groups and teachers that have negotiated with private travel agencies, with charter companies, to create the trip. And they’ve got to work with them to get that money back,” said School District Spokesman Grayson Kamm.
As for the reimbursement, Kamm says they are sending each school principal and staff copies of information that they can share with travel agencies and tour operators explaining why the action was taken - in hopes of persuading them to offer the refunds.
Writing a check for reimbursement, said Kamm, is not in the budget. But they are collecting the data just in case state or federal disaster funds become available, specifically to cover losses created by the COVID-19 outbreak.
“There’s an opportunity in the future where the state or federal government could refund this as part of a state of emergency, and we’re helping them track that,” said Kamm. “Really, our job is to give them the tools. The information from the state and from our district to help the travel agency see that this is a real emergency. We are in a situation where the right thing to do is refund this money.”
The school district says not all field trips have been canceled.
For example, there’s a group planning to head to Washington, D.C. in the near future. But that trip is traveling by bus, so it’s still on.
Others have suggested that parents should use this as a teaching opportunity to show kids what patience and understanding looks like while awaiting information regarding what’s next, whether it be refunds, reschedules, etc.
The school district says it’s not pulling the plug entirely on the Plant High School Carnegie Hall trip. They say if parents want to get together and find an alternate form of transportation, whether that’s ground transportation or renting buses -- as long as it doesn’t include air travel -- they say that would be all right.
But the district also understands that some parents might be hesitant to do that right now with so much money already out of pocket.
The school district also concedes that even its current travel policy could change at any time, depending upon what it hears from the Department of Education.
Hillsborough County Schools says it has 32 field trips planned over the next couple of months. Eleven of those involve air travel. But they say most should have enough time to plan for alternative transportation that doesn’t involve flying.
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