Saugus seeks to bring back truant officer

SAUGUS – Saugus may be reviving the truant officer position for its schools, but it won?t be because someone?s playing hooky.Instead of working to keep students in class, an officer or teacher will be tasked with finding out which students are attending Saugus schools while living out of district.School Committee members brought up the possibility of re-introducing the position during a discussion of class size at their meeting Thursday.Students crossing the border for school is a “major problem,” said committee member Vincent Serino, because those students are “taking away … from parents who contribute to the community,” and, as Vice Chairman Jeannie Meredith added, “taking a seat in the classroom” from a Saugus student.Committee member Arthur Grabowski suggested the district set up a reporting system with a policy in place to investigate all claims of students living in other towns.He said in the past there was not much the district could do to control the problem because the former superintendent wasn?t willing to investigate rumors of kids who were living outside the district even if principals were almost sure who they were.?Lots of people weren?t going to give names because they were afraid of retaliation. It?s a big problem in the district,” Grabowski said.The committee reported that Saugus has not had any kind of truant officer since the 1970s, when it was a position for a teacher and carried a stipend. Saugus Police Asst. Chief Ronald Giorgetti said currently the town employs a detective to work as a school resource officer, with a main concentration on “juvenile issues.”Chairman Wendy Reed said Thursday that Saugus Police applied for a grant for a school resource officer last year, but the federal government shutdown last fall stalled the process so they never heard back, which Giorgetti confirmed Monday.Giorgetti said bringing in a truant officer “would fall back on the school because of enrollment.”?It?s tough today, because all these kids have grandparents living in town,” said Serino on Monday. “But if the kid?s not living here, they shouldn?t be going to school here.”