Good Friday bad day for attendance in Saugus

SAUGUS-Good Friday once again proved to be not so good when it came to school attendance as 1,595 students took the day off.The School Department has long considered the religious holiday an excused absence for students and teachers who choose to take the day off, but the sheer number of students caught Superintendent Richard Langlois off guard.Langlois said his former district of Haverhill was closed on Good Friday as many schools are. Saugus has chosen to stay open despite a push by some to close.”I didn’t think one way or the other about it, I have too many other things I’m focusing on,” said Langlois on the idea of closing.However, he called the number of absentees significant and said it does raise one’s eyebrows.Despite the absentees, School Committee member Christine Wilson remained steadfast in her desire to keep the school open on Good Friday. Her argument is that if the school closes on a particular holiday for one religion it would have to do the same for holy days for all religions.Wilson said her family absolutely attends religious services during the day, “Otherwise they would be in school,” she said, as her colleague Wendy Reed wondered about the rest of the students.”They take it off, for what?” Reed asked. “I see them all over town.”School Committee member William Leuci tried, to no avail, to sway his colleagues last year to close for the day. He said it irked him that the policy for the day was that no new work was started and no homework was assigned because it was a given that students would be absent.Leuci was absent from Thursday’s committee meeting, however,and was not available for comment.Lynnhurst Principal Susan Carney said she was down two teachers and about 100 students on April 10 but the day went by smoothly. In fact, Carney said one student who had been upset at having to attend asked his mother when she came to get him at 11:30 a.m. if he couldn’t stay for the rest of the day because he was having such a good time.One principal admitted that teachers, knowing it’s going to be a light day in terms of students, tend to get very creative on that particular day, which in turn is a sort of treat for students who do attend.Langlois said barely 300 students showed up for classes at the high school. He asked parents and the public during Thursday’s meeting to give the day a little more thought next year.”I know it’s a holiday but it is part of our master year,” he said. “Maybe you could give that a little more consideration in the future.”