EPCSC board supports student trip to Spain

Eastern Pulaski Community School Corporation board members are in support of students visiting Spain but some questions were left open-ended. 
During a regular meeting Monday evening, school board members heard a request from Spanish teacher Meredith Allen. Allen requested to take the juniors and seniors on a trip to Spain. 
She said the seniors recently approached her about the trip and would like to see it happen in 2017 in June. 
Allen said the trip could be anywhere from seven days to more than 10 days. Students will have an opportunity to see all the main attractions and also apply conversational Spanish. She estimated the cost to be between $2,800 to more than $3,500. 
Allen works with a small family owned company and the kids would get an opportunity to stay with host families. She said the benefits the students will receive are too numerous to count. 
There could be about 62 students that attend the trip. She believes there are about 15-20 students who are serious about going. For every six students there would be one chaperone.  
School boardman Deke DeMarco questioned if this trip is similar to the Washington D.C. trip that students take and that school board members don’t really need to give their approval. 
DeMarco questioned if this was not considered a school function then, “they would have a better opportunity to do fundraising?”  
Superintendent Dan Foster said those are the questions the school board needs to decide. He said it would be good for the board to support the trip. 
He said the other concern is with fundraising because other school groups have been told no per school policy. The booster clubs can hold fundraisers but not the school. 
School boardman Larry Beach said he thinks fundraisers should be allowed because he believes students should have every opportunity to attend a once-in-a-lifetime trip. 
The school board approved to support the trip.