The budget includes an additional $25,000 for the Council on Aging.
LUDLOW – Voters at the annual Town Meeting in Ludlow Monday night approved a fiscal 2012 annual town budget of $52,906,537, which includes a fiscal 2012 annual School Department budget of $25,242,721.
Town Meeting members approved the addition of $25,000 to the recommended $314,000 Council on Aging budget. Monday night's session was a continuation of the annual Town Meeting that began May 9.
Senior Center Director Jodi Ahearn lobbied for the $25,000 increase in the Council on Aging budget to provide a 35-hour transportation coordinator.
Following the budget cuts of several years ago, there is not adequate help to coordinate all the requests the senior center gets from seniors for senior center van rides to doctor’s appointments.
“Many residents take the van,” Ahearn said. She said the service is provided to 2,000 seniors per year.
For some, the van service is the only lifeline to doctors for seniors who continue living in their own homes, Ahearn said.
She said the parents of many seniors voting at the Town Meeting take the van service.
Selectman William E. Rooney said he sympathized with Ahearn’s request, but he said other departments were just as needy.
“The School Department is just as needy,” Rooney said.
Selectman John P. DaCruz said the Council on Aging operates on a very small budget.
“A lot of people use the Senior Center van,” DaCruz said.
The request to increase the Council on Aging budget for a transportation coordinator was approved at the Town Meeting by a majority show of hands.
The $25.2 million School Department budget represents a cut of $340,000 to the original School Department budget proposed by School Superintendent Theresa M. Kane.
To achieve the $340,000 reduction, the School Committee cut $200,000 for four academic coaches. The coaches, who are certified teachers, were hired to help teachers raise student scores on MCAS tests.
The academic coaches will be moved back into classrooms to keep class size low, School Committee member James P. “Chip” Harrington said.