Saugus school board OKs hockey changes

The Saugus School Committee voted unanimously Thursday to eliminate the Belmonte Middle School hockey program in order to create a junior varsity program at the high school.Athletic Director Mike Nelson said the middle-school program served its purpose, which was to build up the high school program.?What happened was we started the middle school program and it was great and did exactly what we wanted it to,” said Nelson. “Now we have 40-plus kids at the high school that want to play hockey. We figured the best way to go about it is to have a JV and varsity program.”Middle-schoolers can now obtain a waiver to play on the JV team, which will cost the high school rate of $350.Also, Superintendent Richard Langlois thanked the staff of the high school and Veterans School for successfully evacuating more than 600 students on Wednesday due to a glue smell at the elementary school.?It was a coordinated effort and it had good results,” said Langlois. “It was a smooth transition. It?s a blessing it was under such good control.”Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected]. You can follow him on Twitter @MattTempesta.