The positions were restored following approval of the school budget at the June 18 annual town meeting.
LUDLOW - The School Committee on Tuesday voted to restore six teaching positions, after passage of a $25.7 million school budget at the June 18 annual town meeting.
The positions which will be restored are a grade 2 teacher, a math teacher and a reading teacher at the middle school and a health teacher, modern language teacher and guidance counselor at Ludlow High School.
The positions were restored after the Board of Selectmen and the Finance Committee voted to recommend an additional $300,000 to the recommended school budget for fiscal 2013.
An additional special education teacher and a special education teacher’s aide will be added to next year’s budget for East Street School.
Interim School Superintendent Donna Hogan said five teaching positions will be eliminated next year, three due to retirements.
School Committee member Patricia Gregoire said she was pleased to see the guidance counselor at the high school would be retained.
She said that because the position will be retained, students at the high school will continue to have the same guidance counselor for all four years of high school.
Maintaining a relationship with a guidance counselor helps students to realize the importance of continuing their education after high school, Gregoire said.
Gregoire said that of the 208 graduates from Ludlow High School this spring, 80 will go on to four-year colleges and 108 will continue on to a two-year college.
Gregoire said there are many students who do not know what career they want to pursue when they graduate, but many realize it is important to pursue an additional degree, beyond high school.
Of the numbers who will attend four-year and two-year colleges after graduating from Ludlow High School, Gregoire said, “Those are pretty good numbers.”
Ludlow High School Principal Lisa Nemeth said that besides the teaching positions which have been cut for next year, four assistant coaching positions also have been cut as well as an intramural sports program and advisers to high school clubs.