Kaitlyn Kanzler, Special Writer
JAMESBURG Heated discussions about a potential field trip that would be limited to eighth-grade honor students broke out Feb. 23 at the Jamesburg Board of Education meeting.
The district has received a $500 grant from Exxon-Mobil that must be used for science and math studies, and a science teacher suggested using it to fund part of a trip for those honor students. The rest of the money needed for the trip could be raised through pretzel sales, the teacher said.
”One of our staff members stepped forward and said she would like to collect more money than the $500 and put it towards a trip for the honor roll students,” said Dr. Gail Verona, superintendent.
According to Board Administrator Thomas Reynolds, the idea had to be brought before the board because if the students could not raise sufficient funds, the board would have to decide if it would foot the rest of the bill, which is estimated at between $520 and $530 per busload.
The field trip suggested by Josephine Madden, a science teacher at Grace M. Breckwedel Middle School, caused outrage among the parents attending the meeting.
Ms. Madden suggested limiting the trip to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia to honor roll students, which made many of the nonhonor and other honor roll student parents upset because it singled out a certain group of children within the school.
”My concern is that if you do your best, but you’re just not an A/B student, that’s completely unfair,” said board member Patrice Faraone to applause. “I just don’t see where kids should be punished because they can’t obtain an A or a B, but they work their hardest.”
”The system is designed to find reasons to punish the kids,” said Sandy Sussman, of Buckelew Avenue. “There are students who can’t do more than they’re doing. And there is nothing to be ashamed of.”
”My son came home and told me all about this trip that the teachers were going to have a pretzel sale for. Nowhere in there did it say honor roll,” said Dina Brucato, of Perrineville Road, PTA president.
”This should be for everyone,” Ms. Brucato said, echoing Ms. Faraone.
”If you start making an incentive trip, there are kids who know they are not going and won’t support buying the pretzels,” board member Linda Newton said.
It also was suggested the students start raising the funds in sixth grade to ensure they would have enough money to pay for the trip by the time they reach eighth grade.
”If every student is going to buy that pretzel, then every child should be able to go on that trip,” Ms. Brucato said. “And why does it have to be a trip? Why can’t, if it’s a science grant, a science assembly be brought in so that every student can benefit from this grant?”
”I think (the trip is) a great learning experience, and then it gets twisted around, and I’m the bad guy, and all of a sudden I’m the one that started this talk about the fundraiser, and I want only the honor roll kids to go on,” Ms. Madden said. “No, I picked a small group of kids. Yes, I said, maybe we’ll start with that or just the eighth grade so we could do that with a small amount of money.”
According to Dr. Verona, the district just recently received Ms. Madden’s suggestion.
”This was not at all decided as being a program,” Ms. Verona said. “We brought it to the board because we had questions about it. And we said our concern was just that. How could you just have it for the students that are honor roll students? We were questioning that.”
Because of budget cuts in recent years, many school districts have cut field trips from their schools, and Jamesburg is no exception. In past years, students went to Washington, D.C., but are now limited to Activity Day, which is a day set aside for games.
Ms. Madden defended her idea, stating she had wanted to start small with just one group of kids, but the group didn’t have to be honor students. She hoped the district would be able to reinstate some of the programs that have been cut over the past several years through fundraising.
According to Ms. Madden, several schools, including Cranbury, have trips for their eighth grade classes as congratulations for graduating.
”Why should the eighth-graders get to go on a trip and no one else? Because they’ve been here for nine years and deserve something,” Ms. Madden said. “I don’t care, but at least we can get something started. If I was rich, I’d take them to Hawaii with me and show them a real volcano instead of a volcano in a book.”

