Public speakers urge Spring Grove Area SD to restore mock trial funding after students say cuts blocked competitions

Michelle Galivani, speaking during public comment, told the Spring Grove Area School District board that repeated cuts to the district's mock trial funding prevented students from attending invited competitions, including an Angela B. Harvard seminar for which students had raised roughly $15,000. "We asked the school and the education fund to review and submit more than 10 grants," Galivani said, and the education fund submitted only four, yielding a single successful grant. She said students spent countless hours fundraising and that the board repeatedly reduced support despite invitations and awards won by the team.

The comment spelled out the program's impact: student-written letters documenting the importance of mock trial, lost opportunities to attend national and seminar competitions, and frustration that students had to subsidize the program. "Have you read these letters the students spent hours writing? Or do you simply see a money in an account and decide they can fund the program themselves?" Galivani asked the board.

In response, an administrator identified in the transcript as Mr. Zap summarized follow-up meetings among district leaders, the high school principal (Mrs. Aleppo), Mr. Baker (a mock trial advisor), and student representatives. Zap said the group produced a one-page summary and reached a compromise focused on sustainability. He described proposals to clarify whether mock trial is a club or a course, to align funding and structure across extracurriculars, and to create an academic booster club to enable broader fundraising (providing a path similar to a 501(c)(3) to support programs beyond local car washes). "We proposed restructuring the program," Zap said, adding the goal of consistency and long-term sustainability.

The exchange ended without a board vote on funding at the meeting. Board members said the administration would continue work and that a summary of the agreed items had been placed at members' seats. The administration framed next steps as program restructuring and establishment of a booster mechanism to help teams raise money more effectively; public commenters asked the board to read students' letters and restore direct support.