Georgia Aquarium raising money for Fulton school field trips

Fulton County school students disappointed that they might not be able to visit the Georgia Aquarium this year may soon have reason to rejoice.

The world’s largest fish tank hopes to raise $65,000 to pay for gas to bus students to the attraction’s doors, thereby bypassing one of the district’s big concerns: high fuel costs.

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BEN GRAY / bgray@ajc.com

Aquarium officials say education is an important part of the attraction’s mission.

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“Not every child learns everything in the classroom setting,” aquarium spokesman Dave Santucci said. “They need a well-rounded education. Some need to get out in the field.”

Aquarium officials began asking members and fans to donate to the cause last week in e-mail blasts and has received about $6,500 to date, Santucci said.

Fulton County, facing a $21.6 million budget crunch, froze field trips for the 2008-2009 school year about two weeks ago, said spokeswoman Susan Hale. The move is expected to save the county about $500,000.

The aquarium’s plan is directed toward poorer students who attend Title I schools — schools where a majority of students live below the poverty line. Corporations and individuals donate funds to the aquarium — currently about $143,000 — to help students from disadvantaged homes visit the attraction.

The money raised will help about 13,000 students, Santucci said. So far, no other school districts, including those in Gwinnett, Dekalb, Cobb or Clayton counties, have canceled any planned field trips, he said.

“This is not a huge portion of our business,” Santucci said, “but it is a very important part of our mission.”

Faced with ever tighter budgets and less money from the state as a result of the economic downturn, school systems across metro Atlanta have had to either raise fees on field trips or greatly reduce their numbers. Cobb County, for instance, recently raised the cost for schools taking field trips from $2 a mile to $3 a mile.

Other districts are relying more on virtual field trips, which let students visit museums, farms and others adventures through the Internet. Principals and parent-teacher associations also hire presenters and performing artists who come to campus rather than putting students on a bus to travel to them.

Hale said Fulton schools are not prohibited from field trips. If a PTA wants to pay for an excursion or if an individual school wants to use money out of its own budget, it is free to do so. What is frozen is money that the county’s central office usually sends as a supplement to individual schools.

“I think this is a great idea,” Hale said of the aquarium’s offer. “That’s the best case scenario where the business world and the education world work together.”

Aquarium officials said they are making the gesture because education is part of the fish tank’s mission.

Almost 60,000 students visited the aquarium on Georgia Performance Standards field trips during the 2007-2008 school year. Almost 40,000 of those students came from Title I schools throughout the state, with most of the students coming from metro Atlanta.

The aquarium discounts admission for students on field trips, dropping its standard fee of $19.50 for children to $11 for students from wealthier schools or free admission for those from poorer communities.

The aquarium hopes to raise the money quickly and make their offer to Fulton County soon. Before canceling field trips for the year, the county had scheduled its first visit to the aquarium in mid-October, Santucci said.

“It’s an informal offering at this time,” Santucci said. “What we are trying to do is get the money and go to them and say, ‘If we can offer the money, can you reinstate the field trips?’”

— Staff writer Laura Diamond contributed to this article.