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Date: 12/19/2022
LUDLOW – The Ludlow School Committee met on Dec. 13 to determine the number of approved school choice openings for the 2023-2024 school year and heard from district Special Education Director Eva Tillotson, who gave a final report.
The school choice program allows parents to enroll their children in a school district that is not their home district.
Every year the School Committee in each school district decides whether it will accept new enrollments under this program and, if so, in what grades.
Superintendent Frank Tiano recommended that the committee agree to keep the same number of school choice openings.
“It has been past practice to have 107 spots in Ludlow schools.” Tiano added.
The School Committed approved keeping the school choice enrollment number at 107.
According to Tiano, there are currently 89 students enrolled which leaves 18 open spots and another eight graduating this year for a grand total of 26 open spots.
The number of students enrolled in school choice had declined during the coronavirus pandemic but have begun to rise again this year.
Tiano said, “Last year we had 76 students. The year before that we had 87 students. In the 2019 to 2020 school year, we had 101 and 2018 to 2019 we saw 102 students.”
School Committee Chair Chip Harrington added that the school choice program in Ludlow and the committee must decide to raise or lower the amount that can enroll.
“We pull a name out of a hat. You don’t know what we are going to get. We might bring in some high significant special education students or high achieving students. It should be a fair process like that.” Harrington added.
According to Tiano, school choice applications will open in February 2023, and the lottery will take place in March 2023.
“We will make it explicit on our webpage for what grades we have positions available in so people can apply for those directly.” Tiano added.
Special Education District Director Eva Tillotson provided the committee with a special education update before she retires on Dec. 31.
Her presentation said that there are currently 436 students who have individual education programs (IEP).
Tillotson talked about her biggest fear with the budget going forward.
Tillotson told the committee that the Operations Services Division, which handles special education for out-of-district schools, has announced there is a possibility of a 14 percent increase in special education out-of-district tuition.
This would bring the FY23 total to $1.73 million and FY24 to $2.4 million. This would represent a $675,000 increase.
“That is nothing that I, Dr. Tiano or Kathy [Demetrius, district director of operations] can control.” Tillotson said.
Tillotson added, “There are a lot of people fighting this, so I don’t know how this is going to turn out. I hope for everyone across the commonwealth that this doesn’t happen because I do not know how they expect for districts to pay for this.”
She added that the Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative could increase their tuition 10 percent, a $56,000 increase, next fiscal year.
Demetrius said, “We believe that these numbers will come down, but I put them in the budget sheet to plan for the worst case scenario.”
The School Committee thanked Tillotson for her 15 years of service in the Ludlow school district.
The School Committee will meet again on Jan. 10.