SAUGUS — After a tense School Committee meeting on March 26 due to budget concerns, Thursday evening’s meeting focused on the positive: student achievements.
These achievements included celebrating athletes and students who participated in the New England Association of Schools and Colleges student showcase.
Athletic Director Matt Serino recognized the wrestling team, including those from Peabody, as it is a co-op. Also recognized were track athletes who qualified for nationals: Soraya Mathieu, Destiny Okoye, and Hannah Strout.
Serino also recognized girls’ basketball, highlighting the career of senior Peyton DiBiasio, who broke the high school’s all-time scoring record this year.
Saugus Middle High School Principal Dr. Carla Scuzzarella then stood to acknowledge the students from NEASC’s showcase.
“We had our accreditation visit last week. It happens every 10 years, and they do look at student work… They like to get an idea of what our students are focused on,” Scuzzarella said.
After a suggestion was made by the visiting chair to have students present their work instead of it just being piled up to look at, it led to the showcase of student projects.
Scuzzarella explained that 42 students ranging from grade six to grade 12 participated in the showcase with a wide range of disciplines, including art, civics, STEM, AutoCAD, forensics, and world language.
“They really did an amazing job… Some of my teachers also popped in to see the work of students in other classes, and the visiting team was very impressed with them. It was a wonderful hour of display of middle school (and) high school work,” she said.
Projects included a “Serial Killer Cereal Box” project, a “Black Women of the American Revolution” project, and a “Digestive System” project.
Students who participated were then invited to speak about their projects.
One student was Nicole Ferraz Lentez, a seventh-grader, who completed a project titled “Voices Who Cannot Be Silenced” for her ELA Honors class, based on the book “Code Talker.”
“This project was created to explore the experiences of the Navajo children during school, war, and their victory,” Ferraz Lentez explained.
The visual part of Ferraz Lentez’s project was a poster that acted as a timeline from the land to the sky. The poster showcased a Navajo boy standing in front of the sun, which Ferraz Lentez explained was a symbol of guidance and hope.
“Under him is blue corn, which is a symbol of the Navajo homeland. Next to him, I included two Navajo figures. They are sitting together next to a campfire because that shows family and connection. On the other side, I added a bucket of soap because that was the punishment the Navajo kids got in the boarding school when they spoke their home language,” she said, noting that it showed how identity and culture were taken from the Navajo.
Ferraz Lentez also depicted a Native American man on a horse, wearing a Medal of Honor for his service in World War II.
She talked about how she connected to the project as an immigrant who had to learn a new language, and that she enjoyed the project.
Other presenters included seventh-graders Giovanna Sao Felix and Heloysa DeLima, who presented an AutoCAD 3D design project. AutoCAD is used by architects, engineers, and designers to create technical drawings and models.
“It included using a computer program to build pieces of, I believe, machinery, buildings, and things like that,” Sao Felix said. “What we do is insert the measurements into the computer programs, so shapes appear, and with the shapes, we use the pictures to mimic how they are supposed to look.”
DeLima talked about how the project included drawing, editing, organizing, and outputting.
“What I learned from this project was to accurately scale drawings and working faster with shortcuts. Plus, evolving my brain to learn different things, understand how engineering and architecture works, and how to use different techniques,” DeLima said.
Scuzzarella pointed out that Sao Felix and DeLima were doing the same work in the class as high school juniors and seniors.
After all the projects had been presented, the School Committee commented on the dedication of the students who participated.
