UPDATED: Superintendent Said Cancellation of Museum of Fine Arts Field Trip A 'Mistake'

Tuesday afternoon, Fuller Middle School Principal Sharon Seyller told parents that a popular grade 8 field trip to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston would be cancelled due to the Framingham Public School district's budget "freeze."

Almost immediately, a Spanish teacher at Fuller Middle created a GoFundMe page to raises the needed $600.

The teacher wrote, "this year, our team was able to raise money to cover the cost of two buses for the trip, but a budget freeze in Framingham has forced us to look elsewhere for the remaining funds to cover the remaining two buses," wrote Am Cecil Fuoti.

The principal in a newsletter to parents said money for the field trip would be refunded to students, as the trip was "cancelled."

But after a candidate for Framingham School Committee and a Fuller parent spoke about the budget freeze and the cancellation of the Fuller Middle field trip at Tuesday night's School Committee meeting, Superintendent of Schools Stacy Scott said it was a "mistake," and that the field trip would take place.

"It's not fair that halfway through the year field trips are cancelled," said Rick Finlay, a candidate for School Committee.

Jennifer Moshe, who has a 7th grade daughter at Fuller, also spoke about the cancellation of the field trip, among other issues at Fuller.

During a break in the School Committee, Scott went and spoke with Moshe, who was sitting in the audience.

Moshe told Patch Scott told her that the funds for the field trip would be unfrozen.

The Spanish teacher in her GoFundMe page wrote the trip "allows students to have first-hand experience with art and enables discussions surrounding Spanish and French works as part of our curriculum. Most of our students have never been to a museum and it it an invaluable first-hand experience."

In less than than 12 hours, $190 was raised by parents and staff towards the $600 goal to get 167 students to the Boston arts museum.

The Framingham Public Schools has a budget of $115.7 million this school year.

Last night, the School Committee heard an updated presentation by the Superintendent on his proposed 2016-17 school year budget. He originally was proposing $128 million in December, but last night the presentation proposed a $125 million budget.

Afterwards a public hearing was held on the proposed budget, Finlay, Moshe and about 3 others members of the public made remarks.

Patch will have a report on the updated budget presentation posted shortly.