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Date: 10/5/2022
LUDLOW – The School Committee meeting on Sept. 27 included a vote on the sports waiver and an update on the budget, along with two presentations on recent student enrollment and demographic information.
Sports waiver
Every year, the committee must vote and approve the waiver for students in lower grades to be able participate in junior varsity (JV) and varsity sports. This allows middle schoolers to compete in high school sports.
The renewal of middle school waivers is for winter and spring sports. Winter sports waivers are for eighth grade only and they include JV Ice hockey, varsity boys swimming, varsity wrestling and JV girls basketball. Spring sports waivers are for the seventh and eighth graders and include varsity boys tennis, JV softball and baseball.
Director of Athletics Tim Brillo and School Committee Chair Chip Harrington mentioned how extracurricular, and sports participation are down, but think is just a product of COVID-19 and hope to see a rise in enrollment in sports. Brillo said, “Every year is different on how many kids we get. It can also be up to the coaches to recruit kids to play their sports.”
The waiver was approved unanimously.
Financial update
Superintendent Frank Tiano mentioned at the Select Board meeting date how he wants to be more transparent with the community about the budget, so everyone knows where the money is being allocated to and what funds are left for each department.
Director of Operations/School Business Manager Kathleen Demetrius provided the committee with an update on the current financial status of the district.
She said, “The total available balance is good, and the report does reflect individual line items that are negative. Many of them will be adjusted when the grants are approved.
Demetrius continued to mention there are a few items where not enough funds are budgeted but said, “There is an article proposed for the fall Town Meeting to increase the budget to support us in those areas.”
Members of the committee along with Tiano will be at the meeting to discuss their article proposing to increase their budget by $150,000. Harrington intended to talk about the specifics of why they requested that amount of money at the Town Meeting that took place on Oct. 3.
Harrington said there will be a financial update every other meeting.
Tiano wanted the committee to recognize and vote on his proposed budget timeline that was presented last week at their joint meeting with the Select Board. The timeline includes the new budget being finalized and presented to the public by January. Tiano wanted the committee to vote on his timeline, so that everyone is on the same page. The vote passed.
Data presentations
Director of Curriculum and Instruction Erica Faginski-Stark and Director of Special Education Eva Tillotson provided the committee with recent student enrollment and demographic information.
Tiano said he invited the two district members in to present because the district is approaching their Oct. 1 deadline of the official enrollment in schools that they must supply to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).
He said, “This is where the funding comes from, and these numbers are used for things like accountability. As we are putting together our programming for this year and coming years, we need to understand the students we are dealing with and the services we are offering. We need to understand our school population and how we are trending in that area. Our school population changes from year to year and we need to understand what these numbers are and what is behind those numbers.”
Faginski-Stark presented first with an update on the demographics in the community. All the numbers are based on Oct.1 numbers of each respective year.
The presentation showed the overall 10-year enrollment in the schools gradually decreased each year. The presentation continued to show who makes up the community based on race/ethnicity, the trend of selected populations like English language learners (EL) or students with individualized education program (IEP), the amount of people enrolled who fall into those criteria and families who may be considered to receive low income.
It also showed the number of homeless students and school choice students. School choice is a term for education options that allow students and families to select alternatives to public schools. There are currently 20 students with an IEP.
Faginski-Stark talked about the EL population and said, “The good thing we are seeing with our EL population from an academic standpoint is that the stability is high. You will notice that it is at 97 percent and what that means for us is that the students who are coming to us, are staying here which means we are able to provide them with a quality education and are able to learn the English language.”
Faginski-Stark said they have started this year at 146 EL students and counting. The number one language people are coming to the schools with is Portuguese and their are over 20 native languages.
Tillotson presentation shared the numbers of special education students enrolled in Ludlow schools. It shows a slight decrease over the last decade. The rest of the presentation showed what they are providing in district services, special education students by school, and the number of out of district students.
The presentation shows that there are currently 420 special education students enrolled in the district and it is broken down by school. There are also 26 students who are placed out of district in places like Holyoke, Springfield, and Windsor Locks, CT. Tillotson mentioned that these students go to an out of district special education school and cover most of the tuitions using a grant.
She also shared a chart that breaks down each program that each school offers for special education. These programs include pre-K intensive care learning programs, integrated pre-K classrooms, inclusion, intensive autism programs, focus programs, structured individual programs, language based learning disability programs, life skills program and a transition program for those who are between the ages of 18 and 21. Each school offers related services like speech, social workers and counselors.
Tillotson showed a comparison of special education students in this district to similar areas like Agawam. The percentage rate for Ludlow is lower than the sate as well. She mentioned, “I think we have gotten better over the years of truly identifying students as having a disability and needing services. We have been trying to explain to staff that being a little behind does not mean you need an IEP or a disability.”
She added, “If you label a child that sticks with them for the rest of their lives. If they are not truly disabled, we should not qualify them as that.”
The committee expressed they were all very appreciative of both presentations and learn about the population and communities in their schools and how the programs and services are broken up.
Taino also mentioned that both the budget and presentations on student enrollment and demographics will be available on the school website.
The School Committee will meet again on Oct. 11.