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FROM STAFF REPORTS / Editorial 

It has been a long year for parents with children in the Chelsea High School marching band.

When their trip to Orlando, Florida, was canceled in spring 2020 due to the growing concern of COVID-19, parents were out of pocket $800.

With approximately 100 students expected to attend the trip, that equaled a grand total of around $80,000 paid by the Chelsea band to student group tour and travel company Musical Destinations to attend Universal Studios just shortly before the trip was forced to be canceled.

“We found out Universal fully refunded our money for the tickets to the park, and that money was refunded back to Musical Destinations, but they wouldn’t give us any money,” former Chelsea band parent Joe Frost said.

Days and months went by without a response from the company regarding a refund, and now, almost a year later, parents still haven’t received any contact from Musical Destinations.

The Shelby County School system, however, has decided to step up and refund the money while taking full control of the battle with Musical Destinations.

During the summer, the high school notified parents that the band booster account had been emptied to help provide what they could to parents as a partial refund, which totaled $65 per student, still leaving $735 unaccounted for.

But now the school system is stepping in to help after several unsuccessful attempts to get refunds from Musical Destinations.

The school system waited as long as they could to give the company time to do the right thing, but they couldn’t wait any longer to refund parents.

Shelby County Schools will continue to seek reimbursement from Musical Destinations for the money that has yet to be refunded.

It has been a disappointing battle that has given the Florida-based company several opportunities to do the right thing, but they have had no interest in doing so.

Thankfully, Shelby County Schools wasn’t afraied to make up for a mistake that wasn’t theirs to fix.