SAUGUS — School Committee Chair Vincent Serino isn’t satisfied.
While Serino believes the district was able to accomplish some of the things they set out to do in 2022 — particularly with regard to student achievement — he said the year wasn’t as successful as it could have been.
“When we look at some of the things kind of turning that corner on the student achievement, the gap between where we should be and where we’re going, we’re off the state watch list, which was a bad thing. So now gives us a little flexibility in some of the things we do as far as the administrators, gives them more time to do other things, instead of reporting into the state all the time,” he said. “We have a long way to go. I don’t think the year last year was as fruitful as it could have been. But with that said, I think we’ve got things in line to start this year off pretty well.”
In explaining his dissatisfaction with the progress made in 2022, Serino emphasized the fact that the town still has a number of open positions — both for teachers and paraprofessionals. He said Saugus needs additional help in classrooms because the town’s teachers are “doing more than they’ve ever done.”
“Going back to last year, we didn’t fill those positions. And we need to really fill them now, which is tough because you’re in the middle of a school year. So there’s not a lot of people, educated people looking for jobs. So it’s kind of hard to fill those positions. But coming into the new year. Those positions should be filled,” he said. “We’re just shorthanded right now.”
Serino took over as chair of the committee in May following the resignation of Thomas Wittredge, who stepped away to provide additional care for his two children after his wife died of breast cancer. Entering 2023, Serino said his top priority remained boosting student achievement, while also noting that he would like to see a revival of the town’s enrichment and athletic programs.
“Student achievement is our biggest thing,” he said. “We’re also investing in the social-emotional well-being of students with some of the grants we have with COVID and what’s happened the last couple of years. A lot of these kids socially and emotionally need that extra hand, and we’re going to be able to help them with that resource.”
Enrichment and extracurricular programs, he said, help students socialize while also providing additional aid for students who need it and for advanced students who are accelerating past the material in the classroom.
“The town was very instrumental in setting aside money in what they call a School Stabilization Fund, where we’re able to take from that fund and use it for student enrichment and extracurriculars. The real driver behind it is, ‘How do we get the kids that need extra help that extra help they need? And how do we get these advanced kids that want to learn more, how do we get them the resources to learn more?’ So that’s what we’re looking at,’” Serino said.
With regard to athletics, Serino pointed to his own experience as an athlete, noting that sports often help students attend college who wouldn’t otherwise or for whom it is not a financial option. Over the years, athletics have been part of the fabric of the town, Serino said, citing Saugus’s historical success in hockey. Now, the current lack of a hockey team in the district represents an example of the challenges facing the athletic department.
“As far as athletics, we’re looking at some different things as far as the kids that are right on the edge of being eligible. We’re working on things that make them eligible, get them the extra help, so they can play football, they can play basketball, they can play those sports, and we’re also going to lean hard into the alumni who came before them to see what we can learn from them and how they can help on the athletic side,” he said.
With the task of setting the school budget for the upcoming fiscal year approaching, Serino said he would like to see an emphasis on teacher and paraprofessional pay, and a general investment in providing more resources to the town’s schools.
“Like any other budget we got to assess our needs first,” he said. “The state mandates us to do a lot of things. So those things have to be done first within a budget. And then we have to look, ‘Hey, is there money left for this to go here?’ The town gives us the resources we need. I just think we got to do a better job utilizing it.”
“What I’d like to see is … an influx of money for teacher pay paraprofessional pay, because we have great teachers, we have great support staff, and a lot of them are here because they love the town because they could go to a lot of different places and make more money, but they’re here because they love the town,” he continued. “I’d like to see us being able to reward those people. Now, is that something that’s going to happen overnight? No, but that’s something we can work on.”
Serino said he believed transportation was likely to remain a big issue facing the school district in 2023 as a result of the consolidation of the town’s schools into three buildings, which created a scenario where more students fell outside the two-mile radius and became designated mandatory riders by the state. As a result, the town has repeatedly been unable to meet demand for bus seats, and Serino said the committee needs to work to nail down how many more buses need to be purchased ahead of the next school year.
“We got to look at, next year when we talk to the bus company do we start with two more buses or three more buses? Now there’s a cost to that and where does that cost come from?” Serino said. “To learn, you have to be in school so we have to get the kids there.”
Another issue Serino cited was safety, noting that the committee has repeatedly pushed for the hiring of a school resource officer (SRO) at the middle/high school. But, he said, doing so remains an issue of cost.
“That’s a big thing when it comes to public safety is an SRO … it’s important to all of us,” he said.
With his two-year term on the committee set to expire this year, Serino said he was not ready to make any decisions regarding his future. Instead, he said, he was focused on the present and the year ahead.
“’I’m just worried about doing as job the best as I can … right now, I’m focused on now and what we can do now to better the schools,” he said.
