After having the rug pulled out from under them and scrambling to salvage a lost eighth-grade experience, Mentor Public Schools has come up with a new trip to give its students.
Discovery Tours, the company contracted by the school district to handle the eighth-grade trip to Washington D.C., canceled just 12 hours before departure last week.
Not only that, but Discovery Tours also canceled trips for countless other school districts across Ohio. The company either did not pay or only partially paid for hotel rooms, buses and activities for these trips.
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So, Mentor Public Schools announced an alternative for its students in a letter to parents on Tuesday, starting with a thrill-filled trip to Cedar Point. The district said representatives from the amusement park reached out to offer free tickets to all eighth-grade students and staff chaperones for a day. Cedar Point is also providing its Hotel Breakers for the group at a discounted rate for the overnight trip.
After breakfast the following morning, students will attend one of three activities: The Cleveland Metropolitan Zoo, The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame or the Nautica Queen on the Cuyahoga River.
The final stop will be at FirstEnergy Stadium where all Mentor Public Schools eighth-graders will be invited onto the field to take a photo.
The letter to parents ended with a reminder that school officials continue to work on returning the money parents lost to Discovery Tours:
We continue to work on the recovery of funds for the families whose money was not returned by Discovery Tours. Please be assured that the school district has been actively engaged with our attorneys to protect the financial interest of both you, the parents, and the school district. We will be meeting with our attorneys before tonight’s Board of Education meeting and could take formal action as early as tonight to pursue financial restitution.
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