SAUGUS — Saugus will now provide transportation for its athletic students to and from school games.
On Wednesday, the Saugus School Committee voted unanimously to transfer $42,000 from the Lynnhurst, Oaklandvale, Veterans, and Waybright schools’ noon-aide budget lines — which were not utilized this year due to remote learning — in order to support the transportation needs of student-athletes for the remainder of the 2020-21 school year.
The decision comes following a change in state guidelines regarding COVID-19 bus safety and means Saugus students and parents will no longer be required to drive themselves to school games.
“Without COVID, this wouldn’t have been an issue because the kids would have been able to hop on the bus and go without worrying about sitting three feet apart, six feet apart,” Committee Chair Thomas Whittredge said ahead of Wednesday’s meeting. “But now kids can ride as usual as long as they wear their mask, so we wanted to find out if we have the money to support busing for the rest of (the) Fall 2 season and Spring season.”
The district’s current rule states that no student can drive individually to a game unless accompanied by a parents or guardian. However, that rule was temporarily suspended in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the district decided last spring to reallocate funding for transportation to other parts of the school budget.
When athletic teams were eventually given the go-ahead to resume operations in the fall, students were expected to find their own transportation to games, and parents of licensed drivers were asked to sign waivers before allowing their students to drive themselves.
“I didn’t feel comfortable with kids driving. That’s my honest opinion as an ex-high school principal, parents, and superintendent,” Superintendent Dr. David DeRuosi said during a school committee meeting last week.
When the state changed its bus safety guidelines three weeks ago, Whittredge said he reached out to DeRuosi to request that funds for additional buses be allocated from elsewhere in the district’s budget.
“That way we don’t have to worry about any waivers, and kids will all have transportation that we’ve provided, as it should be,” he said.
Whittredge said he was particularly concerned about the prospect of students driving themselves to and from games. He noted that the rule forbidding students to drive themselves was first implemented several years ago following an accident involving Saugus student-athletes.
“The waiver thing has turned into a nightmare and I just don’t feel good about five kids driving themselves to a football game, or any game, and then coming back home after. Kids get a little crazy sometimes,” he said last week. “A lot of these kids get up at 5 in the morning because school starts so early. If they have a night game that doesn’t start until 8 p.m. and then have to drive home by themselves afterwards, things could happen.”
The School Committee also later voted to rescind the transportation waivers, although DeRuosi clarified that parents concerned about COVID-19 risks will still be able to drive their own children to games.
Elyse Carmosino can be reached at [email protected].
