Don’t tell Saugus School Superintendent Dr. David DeRuosi ’tis the season for festive moods and holiday cheer. DeRuosi dropped a big lump of coal Dec. 5 on the School Committee in the form of the town’s Comprehensive District Review Report.
The superintendent didn’t mince words in explaining the report’s grim bottom line to new committee members. “We’ve all read the report,” he said, “We’ve all known the district is in trouble for a while.”
State legislators and Gov. Charlie Baker last week handed Massachusetts cities and towns a pre-holiday gift in the form of the Student Opportunity Act with its $1.5 billion in proposed new money for schools.
Some of that money will come Saugus’ way. But DeRuosi said the school district needs to get its budget-making house in order and draw up a to-do list for the new year aimed at solving problems.
Chief among the superintendent’s concerns is chronic turnover in Saugus’ top school administration jobs. Since 2012, noted DeRuosi, the town has seen five superintendents come and go, three curriculum directors, two high school principals, two middle school principals and several elementary school principals.
Turnover isn’t unusual in school districts and administrators are hired, fired, resign or move on to new opportunities. But DeRuosi said turnover has created an administrative climate in local schools that led to poorly-executed budgeting.
“There was a culture here that there was never enough money,” he said. The schools have logged improvements in students absenteeism and help for at-risk students. But DeRuosi said inconsistent classroom practices and poor test scores continue to burden local schools.
With Town Manager Scott Crabtree standing with him, DeRuosi has taken a bold step to completely revamping Saugus schools with the new middle/high school’s construction and an elementary school system overhaul.
The plan’s success rests to some extent on the philosophy of “if-you-build-it-they-will-come.” In Saugus’ case, the hope is that brand-new schools can translate into success for teachers and other school employees and students.
It’s not a bad goal and the town has invested heavily in it. But Student Opportunity Act money won’t pay for new schools and DeRuosi told committee members that consistency is the key to school.
He sounded ominous when he told them, “You’re my third committee in less than three years.”