The Clymer School Board heard a presentation on the planned senior trip for this year during their November meeting. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

CLYMER — Clymer’s senior class is asking the Board of Education to approve a trip to Universal Studios in Florida.

Adelie Jackson, Student Board of Education member, presented the trip with the help of a few of her classmates and advisor Scott Neckers.

“We plan to leave here and arrive Wednesday, June 17, and then get back to Clymer, Saturday, June 20,” Jackson said. “We had to block off ten rooms for three nights, and just the hotel cost was $7,391.”

Jackson said the plan is to fly directly from the Erie airport to Orlando, which is the cheaper option and being in Erie it was also an easier option to get there. For the airline tickets, the approximate amount is $150 per person, and the plan is for each student to bring a carry-on and one other personal item or bag. Jackson said they got the two-day ticket for Universal, which is $210 per student, which will allow them to have access to three different Universal parks.

The total maximum amount is $17,673 for the trip for 18 kids that plan on going, and two chaperones. The class currently has somewhere around $13,000 to put towards it with upcoming fundraising events including the senior auction, Santa’s Secret Shop, carnation sale, and the Senior Play. Their Senior Play, “Macbeth Off-Kilter” was held the weekend after the meeting, and Jackson said there were already a lot of tickets sold at the time, with more to come.

Neckers said the plan for the trip is to have all students buy their tickets first to make sure they are invested in going on the trip, with the hope to raise enough money to reimburse all of them. Students will also need to have a passport or Real ID.

“It’s also a way for us to know we’re not paying for them to go and then they decide at the last minute that they don’t want to go,” Jackson said. “Plane tickets are expensive and we have to pay beforehand obviously, so if we’re paying for 20 people and only 18 show up that kind of hits us in the backside.”

It was noted that the class really should not have to pay too much with the amount of money they already have and will continue to earn throughout the year. There is also a shuttle bus that will take the students everywhere, along with walking paths to get to all of the parks.

There was also an option for students who wanted to go but needed help with costs to come to the chaperones separately and they would help, and there was also a confidential Google Form. Neckers said they had not heard back from anyone in that regard of the students that wanted to go. There are about 32 students in the class, and Jackson said everyone was firm as to if they did or did not want to go.

If someone changes their mind at a later date and decides they would like to go, they can most likely do that, though it was noted that the cost of the ticket may be different at that time, and if someone decided they do not want to go after all, it is believed the tickets are non-refundable.

The plan is for students to meet at the school and take a bus to the airport, with parents picking them up on the return trip. The last time a senior trip from Clymer went to Florida was 1989, and Jackson added that their class is the last of the Covid kids, and had more chances to earn money that the last few classes did not, coming out of seventh grade with $3,000 already.

The Board of Education officially approved the senior trip later in the meeting.