March 11th, 2020

Hi friends, I wanted to address a topic that has been brought up to a few committee members so that we are all on the same page...As it stands right now, we have completely filled 3 buses for the DC trip.  We have a waiting list of 8 people currently.  Our first parent meeting for the DC trip was on March 19, 2019 and a second one on September 26, 2019.  Both times we urged parents to sign up earlier than later if they were planning on going on the trip because there is a chance we may fill up.  We started with reservations for 4 buses.  By Christmas break, we had many spots left to fill on the third bus. After Christmas vacation we were contacted by BrightSparks asking if we could release the 4th bus. At that time, we weren't much closer to filling the third bus.  We released the 4th bus with the caveat that if we had a large enough waiting list we would open up the 4th bus...assuming BrightSparks could accommodate all the other reservations as well (hotel, tours etc.).  There wasn't an official announcement about it because we were already 10 months into sign-ups and we felt like there probably wouldn't be enough people signing up to fill a 4th bus when we didn't have a 3rd bus filled.  Suddenly in a very short period of time, we went from having several spots left to having only a couple of spots to then having none all by the end of January. I am super sad that we are put in the position of turning people away for this trip.  This is not something that has happened in the last 10 years (or past 5 trips).  I want everyone to have this opportunity.  If we get enough people to sign up, we will see if BrightSparks can accommodate us. Please feel to contact me with any other questions or concerns you may have.