Wicked Local
The auditorium at the new Saugus Middle-High School will be named in honor of two beloved fine arts teachers in the Saugus Public Schools, Nancy Lemoine and Jerome Mitchell.
The School Committee voted 3-1 to call the auditorium the Lemoine-Mitchell Performing Arts Center.
“Congratulations, this is well deserved,” School Committee Chairman Tom Whittredge said.
Over the last two years, the Lemoine/Mitchell Performing Arts Committee has been trying to transfer the name of the performing arts center that was dedicated in memory of Lemoine and Mitchell at the former Saugus High School to the Middle-High School auditorium.
Lemoine, the beloved Saugus High School drama teacher/stage director, and Mitchell, the longtime director of music education and Saugus High School band director, both passed away in 2013.
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The School Committee approved a budget transfer that will allow the purchase of new computers and interactive TV panels at the lower elementary school, three School Department vehicles and a high-powered snow removal machine.
In the last meeting before the close of the fiscal year, committee members voted 4-0 to support allocating savings from various budget line items to cover deficits and to buy vehicles and equipment the administration identified as priorities.
Among the purchases authorized by the School Committee:
$168,000 in SmartTV interactive panels and desktops at the lower elementary school (Vets)
$30,000 for a Ford F250 pickup truck
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School Committee member John Hatch marveled at what Superintendent of Schools Dr. David DeRuosi Jr. helped accomplish during his five years on the job, calling the progress a credit to the outgoing superintendent and his central office team.
At DeRuosi’s final meeting as superintendent, Hatch praised the superintendent for his leadership in a district that now boasts new or refurbished schools and equipment throughout the school system.
“I think the best legacy Dr. DeRuosi will leave us with is the fact he has such faith in us as a community that his grandchildren will be attending our schools,” Hatch said.
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The School Committee called on Arthur Grabowski to resign from his School Committee seat for making comments they characterized as racist and offensive.
At a March 31 meeting, all four of Grabowski’s fellow committee members asked that Grabowski step down from the School Committee for remarks he allegedly made to a School Department employee.
Last month, the School Committee met in executive session to discuss a complaint Assistant Operations Manager Steve Napolitana filed against Grabowski.
Napolitana detailed in his complaint that Grabowski barged into a meeting with Superintendent of Schools Dr. David DeRuosi about snow removal at the Middle-High School complex and said “this is why we need guys who can speak English to use the snowblowers.”