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Oceanside will replace long-running Ashokan sixth‑grade trip with Club Getaway after declining participation and rising costs
Summary
After public comment and internal review, Superintendent Dr. Harrington said the district will stop sponsoring the traditional Ashokan overnight program and has scheduled an Oceanside-wide Club Getaway experience in the spring; administrators cited falling participation and high per-student costs for the change.
OCEANSIDE, N.Y. — The Oceanside School District will stop sponsoring the longstanding Ashokan overnight trip for sixth graders and instead is scheduling a Club Getaway program in the spring, Superintendent Doctor Harrington said at the March 12 Board of Education meeting.
Parent Andrea Grubbs, who said she has chaperoned the Ashokan trip for more than a decade, urged the district to reconsider. “The experience my students have received while on the Ashokan trip cannot be matched,” Grubbs told the board, citing hands-on nature study, outdoor history lessons and team-building that she said cannot be replicated by a screen.
Doctor Harrington responded that district leaders did not make the decision lightly but pointed to falling participation and rising costs. “We found and saw our number of students, participating decrease year after year,” Harrington said. “This past year, 50, 55% of our students attended.” He added that the cost of the Ashokan trip had exceeded $400 per student and that PTA fundraising could not reliably close the gap.
Harrington said the district also observed a practical problem: when a large share of students declined to attend, families formed alternate, splintered two-day activities that undercut the district’s program goals. He said the district surveyed families who had participated in previous trips to understand barriers and interest; administrators will continue to monitor participation data.
The district has already scheduled a spring program at Club Getaway and plans to “take over the entire facility,” Harrington said, so Oceanside students will attend a district-organized multi-school experience. He described Club Getaway as a supervised adventure-based program that the district will control; the presentation and the parent comment indicate Club Getaway costs discussed by families were about $185 per student, which parents said can still be a barrier for some households.
Harrington invited parents who want to continue the conversation to contact his office for further discussion and said the district will monitor outcomes and participation.
Public comment on the item continued after the presentation; the board did not record a formal vote on the change during the meeting, and Harrington said he would accept responsibility for the administrative decision and for continuing to review the data and community feedback.
This change will affect the current cohort of sixth graders and families planning next year’s program. District leaders urged families with questions to contact the superintendent’s office directly.
