I saw the story in the paper about the Spartan band going to New Orleans. Then I heard something very disturbing. I heard that the organizers of the trip are taking advantage of the free trips that the tour company is giving them and using them for themselves. I heard that for every so many students, there is a free trip provided. Rather than use it for those students who cannot afford to go, or to lower the cost for all the students, the school principal, secretary and her husband and other volunteers are getting their trips for free while leaving behind a lot of kids who couldn’t afford the trip. Some of the chaperones had to pay for their trips and some did not. I hope it is not true. — Disturbed, El Centro
It is unfortunate that this is coming out right before the students and volunteers leave for New Orleans, because everyone involved has worked very hard to raise money for about 18 months in preparation for this trip.
The bulk of the travelers will leave at 2 a.m. Wednesday morning on what is the 35th anniversary of the first time Central Union High’s Great Spartan Band played the Mardi Gras Parade in the Big Easy.
Be that as it may, we have the questions and assertions at hand, and Spartan Band Booster co-president Arnold Preciado said the letter is simply not true.
Some 148 students and chaperones are going, and most are paid for with the exception of just a few, which were then paid for by the Band Boosters themselves in almost all cases.
It is true that for every 15 paid tickets/travel packages, that one was provided at no charge by World Strides, Preciado said. However, those “free” tickets were folded back into the total cost.
What that means is, the sum of the free tickets went to subsidizing the cost of the rest of the tickets, or lowering the base cost of all the tickets across the board. Students paid $1,472 and chaperones/parents/volunteers paid $1,779.
Even with all of the personal fundraising on the part of the students and volunteers/chaperones, the band boosters still came to the table with around $10,000 to fill in the gap of the money earned. That $10,000 came from band booster fundraisers and donations from service organizations around the Valley.
Now, to the “free” tickets.
One chaperone bought his ticket and decided not to go at the last minute, donating it to someone else. That was the purchaser’s prerogative.
Then, the boosters purchased a ticket for band director Renee Baker, and Principal Mike Sterner, which Preciado said was in support of the band and education.
Also, the boosters paid the land travel costs of the volunteers who left El Centro on Monday evening driving a Penske truck full of band equipment and uniforms for the parade.
Every student was assisted in fundraising and the band boosters regularly called on students who hadn’t paid deposits or made scheduled payments for the trip to see if they were going, Preciado said. In just about every case, the parents of the students had their children removed from the travel list for lack of effort in trying to raise their own funds.
There are a lot of people involved in this trip, and the organizers themselves have a long history with the band boosters. We trust there was nothing smelly going on here.
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