Seven pull for Saugus school board

SAUGUS – Seven people have taken out nomination papers for Saugus School Committee and have until Sept. 17 to submit them to the Town Clerk with the required 50 signatures.School Committee Chairman Wendy Reed, Vice Chairman Corinne Riley, and current members Arthur Grabowski and Joe Malone are running for reelection while newcomers Christopher C. Aversa, Vincent A. Serino and John Lake have also taken out papers.Grabowski said he wants to continue creating more opportunities for Saugus students and promote “advancement through accountability.”Grabowski also said he?s looking forward to working with a new corps of administrators, including Superintendent Michael Tempesta and Saugus High School Principal Michael Hashem.?These are new, good people that are going to breath new life into the school system,” said Grabowski. “I want to keep a critical eye to the budget. I think that?s been very important over the past four years, keeping people in the straight and narrow when it comes to budgetary issues ? I was asking for an audit of the student activities account for at least a year before it happened ? And I want to continue bringing community involvement back in the schools ? and I want to continue to be a voice for the parents and kids.”Aversa also discussed the audit of the student activities account, saying he decided to run because he was “not pleased” with how the current School Committee handled it. Aversa also said he wants to eliminate user fees at the high school and find new sources of revenue.?They knew about irregularities since April of last year …” said Aversa. “But nothing happened until January when the principal was put on leave. Instead of telling the town and the taxpayers what was going on with their money, they just kept their mouth shut and used the excuse of personnel issues. I would have acted immediately ? and I wouldn?t have waited for the Town Manager to call an audit. I would have called an audit back in April.”Malone said he?s excited about the new superintendent and noted things are looking up for the schools. Malone also said he wants to do something with the high school, whether it?s a renovation or building a new one.”?I?m looking forward to the initiatives that (Tempesta is) proposing and I think we can really move the town forward and the school system forward,” said Malone. “I think there will be a new era of cooperation between the town side and the school side ? I think we always like to reduce class size. The previous superintendent did a good job of bringing some of the special education services back to Saugus and saved us a lot of money. I think Mike Tempesta will continue that.”Riley said Wednesday that she believes she has “accomplished a lot this term,” and is looking forward to tackling some unfinished business like adult education and building a “more efficient food service program.”?I found out there were not (defibrillators) in the school, so you go around speaking with people who can help you accomplish that and put things in the building that we need that we don?t have funding for,” said Riley. “I?d like to continue that as far as seeing the need and using a different approach to get things that we need other than coming out of the (school budget). Having a child in the school system, I think I bring to the committee concerns of my child being in the school system.”Reed also said she has unfinished business to tend to, and is running for reelection in the hopes of seeing some improvement to school buildings.?We just wrapped up the Belmonte project and we?ll be working on the high school,” said Reed. “Hopefully we?ll be hearing something soon on that and hopefully that carries some momentum to do some work on the other schools as well. We have a new superintendent on board too, so I?d like to at least stick around for a little while to support him.”Serino and Lake could not be reached Wednesday.