SAUGUS — A wave of students headed back to school this week as Saugus cautiously moves toward the hybrid educational model it proposed to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) in August.
Roughly 90 of the district’s special education students in grades pre-K through 12 sat through a half day of in-person classes Tuesday — a notable feat since schools across the state closed indefinitely nearly six months ago.
Their return follows an Oct. 1 vote by the school committee to move the entire district to a hybrid of in-person and remote learning on Nov. 5, provided that the community is able to remain out of the state’s designated high risk classification zone for COVID-19. Saugus is currently considered to be in the yellow, or moderate-risk zone.
“It was so heartwarming to see,” said Pupil Services Executive Director Dawn Trainor of what she described as a successful first day back. “The kids were just so joyful to be back with their fellow students and teachers. It was really just amazing.”
Trainor, who worked alongside Superintendent David DeRuosi to coordinate the return, said the Massachusetts Department of Education has been consistently advising districts to begin bringing students back, largely in part because remote instruction can make it especially difficult for teachers to reach students with different needs.
Despite recommendations from the state, however, the town needed to first make sure it could safely house its incoming students.
“Trust was a big thing for me. I wanted to make sure they felt comfortable and that we could handle this and do it safely, and by and large, it went very well,” Trainor said. “Dr. DeRuosi and I had the plan all along to follow that DESE advisory. It was just a matter of when we could do this safely. We wanted to make sure we were doing it right.”
Although the school year formally began remotely on Sept. 16, school committee member Arthur Grabowski said he was also happy to see some students return because it meant those with higher needs are now able to use the district’s specialized services.
“My first priority was the special needs kids. When we closed up in March, all their services stopped, and they’re the most vulnerable students we have,” Grabowski said. “There are federal laws that govern most of these students, more so than others, so they’re a protected group.
“They need in-service, they need physical therapy, some of them have issues that require them to be face-to-face (with educators).”
School committee vice chair Ryan Fisher agreed the return was a crucial step.
“I can’t underscore how important a move this is,” he said. “Learning remotely is so difficult for our most vulnerable populations.
“If the virus will cooperate, we’ll be able to get our students back in the classroom by November. I’m grateful for everyone whose hard work has made this possible.”
Elyse Carmosino can be reached at [email protected].
