SAUGUS — A Saugus School Committee member is accused of making racist remarks against the district’s non-English speaking employees, according to meeting records released Thursday.
On March 11, the town’s School Committee held an executive session to address a complaint it received on Feb. 7 from Assistant Operations Manager Steve Napolitana, who accused committee member Arthur Grabowski of making racist statements towards some of the district’s maintenance workers in the presence of Napolitana and Dr. David DeRuosi, Saugus Superintendent of Schools.
Executive session minutes requested by The Item state that on Jan. 27, Grabowski interrupted a meeting taking place between Napolitana and DeRuosi inside the superintendent’s office at the Roby Administrative Building to complain about snow removal at the town’s middle-high school complex, telling the two men, “this is why we need guys who can speak English to use the snowblowers.”
When DeRuosi asked Grabowski what speaking English had to do with using snowblowers, Grabowski allegedly replied: “(Non-English speaking workers) are not mechanically inclined to do so.”
During the March 11 executive session, Grabowski, who was previously barred from entering school buildings in 2017 following an altercation with a different staff member in DeRuosi’s office, said his comments were not racist and had been made out of concern regarding a possible safety hazard.
“It bothers me that we spend money on equipment, and if you have people who don’t have the ability to operate the equipment, (it) may be misused,” Grabowski told the board. “It is a safety issue. People lose limbs in snowblowers. I want equipment used in a safe manner.”
He later told The Item that the incident in question was prompted by his dissatisfaction with the way snow was being cleared from the complex, adding that he felt there had been issues with snow removal since the previous School Committee eliminated the district’s custodial staff in 2019 in favor of hiring an outside company.
“There were some concerns that the removal of snow was not up to the way it used to be done when we had our own custodians doing it,” he said.
He again denied that his comments were racially motivated.
“I served in the jungles of Vietnam and on either side of me were people of different races, people of different ethnic backgrounds, and I never held any issues with (anyone),” he said. “I’ve been called a lot of things in my life, but never have I been called a racist.”
However, Napolitana told The Item he was appalled by Grabowski’s actions and said he felt compelled to report the incident to the board.
“To say ‘because you can’t speak English, you shouldn’t be using a snowblower,’ it’s just … what does that mean? No, really, what does that mean?” he said. “It’s terrible to begrudge these people because maybe their English is off.
“Saugus is going through a rebuild to set schools up for hybrid learning and these workers are coming in on Saturdays to help set up classrooms and move thousands of pieces of furniture. If I didn’t have these guys working as hard as they do, I don’t know what I’d do.
“There’s just no place in this world, especially in the environment we live in right now, for comments like that,” he said.
Following its discussion, the board unanimously voted to sanction Grabowski’s conduct and language and directed him to stop visiting school buildings unannounced. He was also asked to take an online sensitivity training class and apologize directly to Napolitana and explain the meaning behind his comments.
Attorney Howard Greenspan, who was present at the proceeding, said the motions were allowed but could not be enforced.
In a statement provided to The Item, the board formally condemned Grabowski’s actions, saying: “Mr. Grabowski’s comments do not reflect the views and values of the School Committee and the committee continues to affirm its beliefs that all forms of racism, prejudice, and bias are offensive.”
