Schools
Nonprofit Group to Save Stokes Trip Up and Running
The Berkeley Township Education and Environment Foundation is seeking to raise $80,000 to keep popular program in the curriculum
The fledgling Berkeley Township Education and Environment Foundation - formed to save the annual school trip to Stokes State Forest - now has a board of directors.
Paperwork for the nonprofit organization has been filed, and the first meeting of the group will be held soon, said Berkeley Board of Education President James J. Byrnes.
“If we want to save the program, it is going to take a commitment from everyone to get it going,” he said.
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The foundation will try to raise the $80,000 needed to fund the outdoor education excursion, a 40-year-old tradition in the Berkeley school district.
The board of directors includes Byrnes, board member Dawn Parks and Michael Hill. More members can be added in the future, but a minimum of three was needed to received a state charter, Byrnes said.
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The Stokes trip involves taking the students to the 15,000-acre Stokes State Forest in Sussex County for the outdoor education program, which is managed by Montclair State University. Originally the trip was held for fifth-graders. It was eliminated in the 2009-10 budget, but restored in the 2010-11 budget, which gave the sixth-grade class students who missed it in fifth grade a chance to attend in June.
When the trip was scheduled to be cut from the proposed 2011-12 school year budget, a group of parents and former students petitioned the board in February to find a way to save it, sparking the idea to create a nonprofit foundation.
Plans on how to save the trip will be discussed in depth at the first meeting. Byrnes said some early ideas that he and Parks have floated include seeking out a website-based sponsor, soliciting the Berkeley Township business registry for donors, as well as holding fundraising events such as car washes and spaghetti dinners.
The foundation will probably contact alumni since, the program has been going on for 40 years. Many of the district’s alumni have said the trip provided them with fond memories.
“It’s a great program,” said Byrnes, who spent a day last year visiting the program to see what it offers the children. “I’d like to see it kept, but we can’t burden the taxpayers with trips when we are losing teachers.
“I think we will be all right raising the money as long as we have help from everybody.”
Parents may be asked to pay a fee for their children to participate in the trip as a "last resort," Byrnes said.
The Board of Education will continue efforts to negotiate the costs with Montclair, in an effort to save the trip, he said.
“We called Montclair State," Byrnes said. "They will reduce the cost for teachers to go, so we will negotiate on that end because they want us and we want them.”
Byrnes said he thinks the start of 2011-12 school year would be a realistic deadline of when the board have an idea of just how much funds had been raised to offset the costs.
The trip's value to the students exceeds its monetary costs, he said.
“I think it is a great value," Bryrnes said. "It's ia great environmental trip. For some kids, it's their only trip out of Bayville. They get to share a lot with their friends, learn a lot about the environment and learn a lot about life. “That is something you can’t put a monetary value on. I know the board is committed to this foundation and making it work,”
The foundation is looking for additional members to join the board of directors. There should be a link to the foundation on the district's website soon, for potential members and donors to contact the foundation, Brynes said.
“We’re always open to ideas,” he said.