SAUGUS — Saugus students will head back to school after February vacation, Superintendent Dr. David DeRuosi announced Thursday.
Following the plan laid out by the district last month, DeRuosi said the return will be staggered, with elementary school students returning the week of February 22, and grades 6 through 12 the following week.
The week of return will be used as an orientation week in order to allow students and staff to become acclimated to the change. The start time at the middle-high school complex will be 7:50 a.m., and the start time for the lower grades will be 8:40 a.m.
“Our main focus, as it has been since we closed, is to maintain a safe and healthy environment to be ready when students return,” DeRuosi said when he explained the plan in a virtual address to parents last month. “Part of that process is to acclimate our students as they enter our buildings for the first time in over 10 months.”
The road to in-person learning has been a long one for Saugus families.
Since August, the town has remained consistently in the state’s high-risk category for virus transmission, forcing the district’s schools to remain completely remote even as surrounding communities made the tentative switch to hybrid learning plans at the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year.
Last month, just days before students were scheduled to return on January 19, the board voted unanimously to halt all hybrid plans after the number of virus cases among school-aged children in the community skyrocketed.
It would have been the first time the majority of Saugus students set foot inside their brick and mortar classrooms since the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools across the Commonwealth to close last March, and the news was quickly met with strongly mixed reactions from parents online, many of whom urged the committee to reconsider.
However, despite months of planning for a January reopening date, the board stood by its decision, reiterating that student and teacher safety comes first.
“It’s tough for me,” committee member John Hatch said during January’s meeting. “As much as I want these children to go back — and I’ve been a staunch advocate for it — I can’t put anybody in harm’s way, either, and the numbers completely speak for themselves.
“I’m disappointed, but I think we all own some piece of this as a community … We all have to hunker down and do what’s right so we can control this virus.”
Committee Chair Thomas Whitredge said Thursday’s announcement will be the board’s final decision.
“Let’s try it and see what happens,” Whittredge said. “If we have to go back to remote, we have to go back to remote, but at least we can say we tried.”
Elyse Carmosino can be reached at [email protected].
