Saugus School Committee OKs $40G for textbooks

SAUGUS-Students on the elementary level will receive a gift they didn’t even know they needed, new math books.The School Committee voted to transfer $40,000 for the express purpose of purchasing math textbooks and instructional software for the Waybright, Veterans, Oaklandvale and Lynnhurst schools.The purchases are another step in updating textbooks throughout the system.Last year the district received something it hadn’t seen in years, an influx of new textbooks for all grades.Town Meeting members voted to bond $300,000 and targeted it directly at purchasing textbooks for the Belmonte Middle School and the High School.Initially Selectman Michael Kelleher made the pitch to find $100,000 for the schools but the amount was bumped up when it was noted that $100,000 would barely scratch the surface of the vastly out of date textbook problem.Once books were purchased for the upper grades there was some funding left over that was used to buy reading books for the elementary level students but they did not receive the flood of new textbooks their older siblings did.Superintendent Richard Langlois said this latest purchase would complete the math series for the fourth and fifth grades.”And by waiting a period of time we got them for $10,000 less,” he said. “This is great and these books will be for all of the elementary schools.”The School Committee unanimously approved the transfer of funds to pay for the books.