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Date: 11/3/2022
LUDLOW – The School Committee learned about the return of a travel club for students along with where the funds they received from Town Meeting are going.
Anna Baboval is a seventh grade geography teacher from Baird Middle School and the creator of the travel club. She came to talk to the School Committee to get approved for two upcoming trips they have planned.
The club has not been able to travel since 2019 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Baboval said that there were 26 students ready to go on a trip to Rome and Pompei “before the world got shut down.”
The Baird Middle School travel club was started in 2012 by Baboval and a group of students passionate about travel.
Baboval said she had the opportunity to travel both internationally and domestically as a student in middle and high school and wanted to provide the same experience for the students at Baird Middle School.
The travel club’s goal is to plan opportunities for students in seventh and eighth grade to travel either domestically or internationally over April break annually.
All trips are limited to 18 to 40 students depending on the destination.
The club has traveled to Washington, D.C., multiple times, including for the 2017 presidential inauguration, London, Iceland, and most recently Montreal and Quebec, Canada, in April 2019.
The next tour is to Washington, D.C. in April 2023 and London, England in April 2024.
Baboval feared how interested parents and students would be in those trips but said there is currently a 10 person waitlist for the D.C. trip and 26 students signed up for the trip to London.
The committee approved the initial travel plans and Baboval said she plans to host multiple fundraising events to help fund the trip. She wants to host large events in the winter and spring with other minor fundraising efforts taking place in between.
Baboval added that travel club meets Wednesdays after school from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. to brainstorm and prepare fundraisers, research current and potential destinations and cultures, and planning for upcoming tours. All students are welcomed.
The committee shifted gears to talk about the $150,000 that the town approved at Town Meeting to be appropriated to the school department to help with the fiscal year 2023 budget.
Director of Operations/School Business Manager Kathy Demetrius presented the committee with a breakdown of what those funds will be going to.
She added that the funds will go toward line items that may be in the negative because the account line was short or not originally budgeted for.
There will be $15,000 allocated toward copiers, $22,500 and $23,622 to cover the tuition and transportation of a student going to vocational school, $31,910 to cover the electrical account, $13,000 to cover the trash account and $43,968 to cover the transportation account for an exact grand total of $150,000.
The School Committee will meet again on Nov. 15.