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Saugus in dilemma, school move set in stone
By Elyse Carmosino | April 11, 2020
SAUGUS — Saugus administrators are in a bind after learning the district is still contractually obligated to Suffolk Construction, the company tasked with building the town’s new combined middle-high school, to vacate Saugus High School by April 24.
Teachers and staff were originally told they would have spring vacation — between April 20 and April 24 — to move all belongings out of the old high school building. However, on March 13 it was announced Saugus schools would close through at least March 27, and the reopen date has since been extended indefinitely.
Unaware school doors would remain locked until well after vacation, students and faculty left behind a completely furnished and stocked building that the town now must figure out how to vacate while adhering to strict health regulations handed down by the state.
“We’re not going to have teachers go into the school, and we certainly don’t want kids going into the school,” said school board vice chair Ryan Fisher. “We may need to hire a private company to pack up, but obviously there are privacy concerns.”
Board member Arthur Grabowski agreed, adding he was concerned about liability issues and laws regarding student medical records.
“I don’t want unknown people going into the school and rummaging through this stuff,” he said. “How many students have personal belongings that are valuable to them in their school lockers? iPads, electronic devices, and other mementos. Who’s liable if these things go missing?
“We have records in there. Who’s going to be cleaning out the nurse’s office where there are medical files protected by federal law?”
In an email sent to parents and educators April 8, the school board announced its attempts to postpone the move-out date had been denied.
“Before the closure, it had always been our intention to have students, faculty, and staff remove their personal belongings prior to leaving the old high school for the final time,” the email read. “Many of these items are still in the building. We have asked for a delay to facilitate the removal of these items, hoping circumstances would improve, but were denied due to contractual obligations already in place.”
Board of Selectmen chair Anthony Cogliano said he was “disgusted” by the situation, saying he felt that construction operations should be halted entirely during the next few weeks, which health officials warn will be the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Number one, they shouldn’t be building the new school. That construction should have been stopped weeks ago,” he said. “I’d rather wait until things get better. There’s no need to continue construction.”
The state has deemed certain construction projects to be essential. According to mass.gov, construction sites may continue operations if they are essential infrastructure, or construction is needed for the maintenance of an existing building, is expressly permitted within the exemption for a specific essential industry, or involves the production of new housing units.
So far, construction on the new building has continued as planned.
In its email, the board emphasized that health and safety is its top priority and encouraged those with concerns to reach out to school administrators.
“Until something changes, we need to deal with this challenging situation as it stands,” it read. “This is not ideal. We understand you may have concerns about confidential or sensitive property (and) we would ask that you reach out to school administration or Central Office and we will do our best to assist. We want to get this right.”
Suffolk Construction had yet to respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
Elyse Carmosino can be reached at [email protected].