SAUGUS — The Lemoine-Mitchell Performing Arts Group will make a pitch to the Saugus School Committee requesting to transfer the name of the old Saugus High School auditorium to the new Middle-High School auditorium.
However, committee Chair Thomas Whittredge said Tuesday that the current naming process is unclear, adding he was unsure if the committee still holds power to grant such requests.
“Now that we’re at the new school, they want to transfer the name (Lemoine-Mitchell Performing Arts Center) over,” Whittredge said. “But what it comes down to is: I don’t think we have the purview to name parts of the building. I want to give them the courtesy of hearing them out, but I just don’t think we can do that.”
Because the district has seen considerable reconstruction in recent years, Whittredge said he’s no longer sure who has the authority to approve a name change.
“It’s a big gray area,” he said. “I’m not sure how to proceed from here, and I’m trying to figure out the best way legally to do this.”
In 2014, a previous School Committee voted to rename the now-demolished Saugus High School auditorium after two of the district’s beloved performing arts instructors: drama teacher Nancy Lemoine, and longtime Saugus High School band director Jerome Mitchell. Both died in 2013 at the ages of 56 and 92, respectively.
James Wlodyka of the Lemoine-Mitchell Performing Arts Group said the group was specifically told when the auditorium was first dedicated in 2013 that all signage bearing the auditorium’s name should be made portable to allow for easy moving in case a new school — talks for which had just started — was built.
“We have plaques, but we were advised not to actually hang them up because the building was going to be coming down anyways,” Wlodyka said. “We were under the understanding that it would be transferred over.”
He added that his group was also under the impression it would be included in the school opening process from the beginning.
“We wanted to be part of the process, and that would have been incorporated into the school actually opening, and not now at the tail end when they’re starting to put names and things up physically in the auditorium,” Wlodyka said. “They’ve already started to do all that stuff, so the opportunity was missed, unfortunately.”
The School Committee will hear the Lemoine-Mitchell group’s pitch at Thursday’s virtual committee meeting. Whittredge said a vote will not be taken that evening.
“It seems no one has the answer we’re all looking for,” Whittredge said. “No one seems to know who’s responsible for the naming of the schools.”
Elyse Carmosino can be reached at [email protected].
