Saugus school board talks tribute to late longtime drama teacher

SAUGUS – Plans are in the works to name the Saugus High School auditorium after late long-time drama teacher Nancy Lemoine.Lemoine died April 18 after being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer last summer. She spent this school year on leave as she tried to fight the disease. She taught drama at Saugus High for 25 years.”Over 40 years you meet a lot of great educators, but you meet very few who did the things she did,” said Superintendent Richard Langlois, who formed a committee to come up with a plan. The School Committee discussed the issue at its meeting Thursday night.Robert Imperato graduated in 2001 and helped organize the benefit show for Lemoine in November. He said Lemoine “brought together and inspired more people than anyone even notices.””She brought together over 100 alumni from 50 years of classes,” he said. “Over 900 people came to the show. That auditorium has never been more full. That auditorium has never been so full of life, and I want to celebrate that woman.”However, School Committee member Arthur Grabowski said he had concerns about other staff members who have influenced students feeling “slighted.”School Committee Chairman Wendy Reed said this was a legitimate concern and wants to see some sort of plan where other teachers and students can be added.”Maybe we need some kind of guideline to make sure everyone appropriate should be recognized,” she said. “Every teacher touches so many lives over the years. It’s going to be difficult to decide and not slight. I agree with Mr. Grabowski on that. I’d like to see something that, even if it’s approved naming the auditorium the Nancy Lemoine auditorium, I want to see something conceptualized that we can recognize former students and/or teachers or anyone that has touched the arts in that somehow.”The committee is expected to vote on the issue at its next meeting June 27.In other school business, Finance Director Pola Andrews updated the committee on the $500,000 gift bequeathed to the high school by Edward O’Neil. She said 75 Chromebook laptops were purchased for $20,000.Andrews also said $8,000 was transferred from the Belmonte Middle School student activity account, which is currently being audited, to the Belmonte Middle School gift account.”It’s the balance of accumulation of fundraising over the years and has probably been sitting in there over the last decade,” said Andrews.Andrews said principal Kerry Robbins will use a portion of it to “defray to the cost” of the Washington, D.C. trip for students who couldn’t afford it.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].