Outdoor education programs now have better than pre-Sandy attendance

FORT HANCOCK –Outdoor New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium student programs have more than recovered after attendance dipped in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.

Field trip and summer camp attendance increased to 19,700 students for the 2013-14 school year from 16,515 students during the 2012-13 school year, said Executive Director Claire Antonucci.

“We lost the fall season,” Antonucci said of the 2012 storm’s impact. “And then we had a slow start because people were hesitant to come back to Sandy Hook.”

The storm surge flooded the consortium’s headquarters at Fort Hancock in the Sandy Hook National Gateway Recreation Area with about three feet of water, and the staff was forced to relocate to Monmouth University in West Long Branch until April 2013. While the consortium’s offices on Sandy Hook were closed, field trips were canceled and schools did not book trips.

“Everyone thought the shore was still a wreck,” Antonucci said. “We were getting a lot of calls asking whether if it was safe to bring students.”

Before Sandy pummeled the shore, 19,471 students attended outdoor programs for the 2011-2012 school year.

Many schools opted to have NJSGC educators come to their schools through the consortium’s Ocean’s to Go in-school program through the 2012-13 school year. The number of schools participating in the in-school program has been retained while bringing the field trips back to full strength, she said.

Field trips to Sandy Hook have ceased for the winter, but demand for spring 2015 programs is high, said Diana Burich, the consortium K-12 program coordinator. As of November, 10 days next spring are already fully booked. Educators here have the capacity to work with 600 students a day, she said.

Outdoor programs for this school year will resume in April.