SAUGUS — The School Committee on Thursday night approved a new employee handbook for the district and a calendar for the coming school year that returns students to school before Labor Day.
Neither item generated much discussion during the meeting, with the three committee members who were present — Chair Vincent Serino, Dennis Gould, and Ryan Fisher — voting unanimously to approve the calendar and the handbook. A proposal to start the school year after Labor Day, which falls on Sept. 4 this year, was considered but ultimately discarded.
Committee members opted to approve the pre-Labor Day start because they believed it would boost student achievement.
“If you come in before Labor Day … it gives our students an advantage with the MCAS testing, the AP testing, and all the testing on the end because those dates are set,” said acting Superintendent of Schools Michael Hashem. “If we come in a few days earlier, that’s a few more days of student learning in the classroom prior to those assessments.”
Serino said he was a “firm believer” in starting the year before Labor Day.
“You get out earlier but time on learning’s more,” he said.
Gould expressed some concern about families wanting to go camping or on vacation the weekend of Labor Day, but said he would back the other option because of its potential added educational value.
Under the calendar approved by the committee, teachers will return to school on Aug. 26, while students will return on Aug. 29 and depart on June 11. (A fact that prompted an audible “wow” from one of the parents in attendance Thursday).
The handbook sparked a brief debate between Serino and Saugus Educators Association President Bill Palmerini, who said he had not seen a revised version of the document after an initial draft complied from other districts was released inadvertently.
Serino sought to reassure Palmerini that the handbook voted on by the committee was essentially the same as the initial document circulated, minus editing errors. Among those errors was a provision that Palmerini said allowed teachers to ask the Board of Health to let them bring miniature ponies to school.
“The first and second are the same,” Serino said.
Gould said he reviewed the document several times and had several questions that Deputy Superintendent Margo Ferrick answered for him.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, Palmerini expressed frustration with the process regarding the handbook.
“I would like to have seen the handbook,” he said. “I’m just making my statement clear that we have not had a chance to review it. Thank you for voting it in, I’m dying to see it now.”
After the meeting adjourned, Gould could be seen having a lengthy conversation with Palmerini that Serino eventually joined.
