Sharpsville school directors unanimously agreed to give the football team permission to go to a football game in Toledo, Ohio, but not without discussion.

The Sharpsville Blue Devils are scheduled to play Liberty Center on Oct. 4, a Friday. The team will be leaving at 6 p.m. the night before.

The board will provide two school buses and two meals, and the Gridiron Club will pay the difference to upgrade the school buses to tour buses.

Both resident Gerard Hanley and school director Donna Murray questioned why the football team plays so many far-away teams as opposed to county teams.

To go to the game, the band students would have to leave on Friday and ride on school buses. Mrs. Murray said the band, in the midst of raising money for a trip to Walt Disney World in the spring, cannot afford to upgrade their school buses to tour buses.

"I feel it's very unfair we can send our football team and not be able to send the band with them. That's part of the whole football scene," she said. "I have a problem with this inequity."

Board President Terry Karsonovich said he does not have a problem with kids missing school for activities such as field trips and football games, and pointed out the band will miss four days of school to go to Florida.

"I think there is some value to sending kids places like that. They still get an education, maybe not from a book," he said.

Karsonovich said the board will look into the game scheduling.