SAUGUS — The School Committee on Thursday approved a new handbook for the Saugus Middle/High School that will raise the standard for graduating with honors and amend rules governing athletic eligibility.
The vote comes nearly two months after Middle/High School Principal Brendon Sullivan first came before the committee seeking approval for the handbook. It only narrowly cleared the committee, with members Leigh Gerow and Ryan Fisher voting against approval. Chair Vincent Serino, Vice Chair John Hatch, and member Dennis Gould voted in favor of the handbook, which raises the standard for students graduating with honors from earning a 3.0 GPA to achieving a 3.5 GPA, and implements “high honors” for students with a 3.7 GPA.
The handbook also brings the district in line with MIAA policy regarding athletic eligibility, allowing student-athletes two failing grades as opposed to one. Gerow and Fisher were mum on the reasons why they voted against the handbook during the meeting. Afterward, Fisher said he could not support “the athletic piece,” with Gerow concurring.
In fact, the handbook generated no discussion during the meeting, despite proving controversial when it first came before committee members, who tabled a vote on the document during their June 15 meeting. In the months since, the committee and Sullivan amended the handbook to include the new high-honors standard, seemingly securing Gould’s vote in the process.
Sullivan had initially sought to implement the honors standard beginning at a 3.7 GPA, but Gould said he felt doing so was too large a leap.
“I understand what you’re trying to do is drive… academics in this school. We want to make Saugus High (better),” he said at the time. “But I don’t want to penalize students.”
Both Serino and Fisher said in June that they felt the two policies contradicted each other — one making it easier for athletes to continue to play despite failing classes, and another making it more difficult for students to graduate with honors.
Sullivan pushed back at that notion at the time, saying that the two policy amendments were “driving at different points,” and it was his view that amending the eligibility requirements for student-athletes could incentivize students to stay engaged with their school work.
As a condition of the new eligibility requirements, any student-athlete who fails two classes will be required to enroll in the high school’s credit-recovery program. Sullivan stressed that the work students do there and in the classroom will have to come before their athletics.
More than half of the students in the Class of 2023 cleared the 3.0 benchmark, Sullivan said.
The concern about the perceived contradiction, at least from Serino, appears to have been appeased by the changes made in the months since.
During the meeting Thursday, Sullivan thanked the committee for putting the interests of the district’s students first.
“I just want to take a minute to thank the committee for all your deliberation and your thoughtful questions on the handbook,” he said. “I am very happy to have a committee that really is very thoughtful about what they’re doing. And they ask thoughtful questions. And ultimately, I know all five members of the committee really just are trying to do what’s best for students of Saugus.”
In other business, the committee unanimously approved a new residency policy that requires new residents seeking to send their children to Saugus Public Schools to first complete a voter identification or town census form at the town clerk’s office. The policy also lays out in greater detail the documentation necessary to prove residency in town.
