SAUGUS — When residents head to the polls on Jan. 25, it will be at a new location.
For this special election only, voting will take place at the Saugus Senior Center located at 466 Central St. The main reasoning for the decision, according to Town Clerk Ellen Schena, is the fact that schools will be in session on that day. Voting will take place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“When we have our local elections, I always petition the schools during that calendar year to close for voting,” said Schena. “I give them a list of what my elections are and they use it as a professional-development day. When this is a special election where, primarily, they are in the schools, that was one of my main concerns. Not just because of COVID, but when they are in the schools, (there is a) lack of parking. The Middle-High School where we have the voting in the atrium — we wouldn’t be able to do that at all.”
Schena said that voters will be asked to wear masks and social distance from others. Still, Schena doesn’t expect a larger number of absentee ballots for this election compared to prior elections.
Residents will be voting on whether to approve the vote of the Regional School District Committee of the Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational School District, which was adopted on Dec. 9. This authorizes the borrowing of $317.42 million to pay for the costs of designing, constructing and originally equipping and furnishing a new Northeast Metropolitan Regional Vocational School and related athletic facilities.
The special election comes on the heels of Town Meeting members voting against funding the school during a special session in October. This was the result of the Board of Selectmen’s decision, with Selectman Debra Panetta making the motion for the issue to go before Town Meeting.
The new building would allow the school to increase its enrollment by 26 percent — to 1,600 students. This is expected to dramatically shorten the district’s waitlist, which consists of about 400 students each year.
