Final approval of the school budget will be at the May 14 annual Town Meeting.
LUDLOW - A public hearing on the proposed fiscal 2013 School Department budget will be help April 23 at 7 p.m. in the Baird Middle School auditorium.
Interim School Superintendent Donna Hogan said she will present a proposed fiscal 2013 school budget at the public hearing.
“We have been working hard to stay within the town’s parameters,” Hogan told School Committee members.
“We know this year will be a difficult year," School Committee member Michael Kelliher said.
He added that federal stimulus money is gone which leads to the need to make cuts.
“We’ll manage through as we always do,” Kelliher said. “We appreciate all the hard work by our administrative team.”
The school budget will be presented to the Finance Committee on April 25. Final approval of the fiscal 2013 school budget will be by the voters at the May 14 annual Town Meeting.
Hogan said she was instructed by town officials to try and “think outside the box” to live without increases to the school budget.
“What we are looking at is bringing out-of-district special education students back into the district,” Hogan said.
She said she has been “driving around town” looking at space which the school district leases out to see if it could be used for “top notch” special education programs which would be offered within the district.
“These are our children,” Hogan said, adding that they should be educated “at home in Ludlow.”
“We are talking about adding top notch programs,” she added.
Hogan said she hopes that some additional special education programs can be developed by next January, or at the latest, by June of 2013.
Hogan said the school district spends $9 million between transportation costs, utilities and out-of-district tuition placements.
She said those students who need to be placed out of district will continue to be placed out of district, but she added, “We are looking for savings.”
School Committee member Jacob Oliveira said he is sure the cost of out-of-district tuitions is “staggering.”
He thanked Hogan for looking for cost savings.