Saugus has started the search for a new school superintendent and the hiring process could be the most important one the town has embarked on in 10 years.
Five superintendents, including Dr. David DeRuosi, who will retire in June, have led town schools since 2012. DeRuosi stood above his predecessors as a school leader with ties to the town, who joined Town Manager Scott Crabtree in mapping out a bold plan to rebuild and reorganize town schools.
DeRuosi pulled no punches in his first meeting with the current committee in November 2019. He referenced a damning report analyzing town educational practices that cited teacher and administrative staff turnover and even a vital report that got lost in the shuffle between one of his predecessors leaving and another coming into the superintendent’s job.
It is also DeRuosi who clashed with the School Committee on school spending, including last month when committee members griped about the superintendent proposing a maintenance budget that did little, in their view, to improve local academics.
Town members ultimately approved the $30 million budget knowing they face the same challenges other communities are confronting as they budget for a post-pandemic educational atmosphere that brings teachers and students back to school.
Committee members realize town educators are anxious to make up for lost classroom time. But committeeman John Hatch warned that town residents who lost all or part of their income during the pandemic may not have the appetite to increase tax-dollar spending on schools.
The next superintendent must grasp school spending complexities that go beyond returning to a teaching model that existed before COVID-19 hit.
The school-building project is at a halfway point with the new middle school-high school completed and planning underway to convert the former Belmonte Middle School and Veteran’s Memorial Elementary School into elementary schools.
These construction projects encompass educational goals beyond renovating two schools. Saugus wants to make all of its schools 21st century educational leaders and the building plan envisions an educational plan that combines many students in many different grades in the renovated Belmonte and Veteran’s Memorial.
The next superintendent must lead the school projects to completion while translating the vision for how the buildings will be used into reality. If renovated schools translate into a reorganized educational system, then a new superintendent must make the case for a spending plan sufficient to fund the reorganization’s goals.
Perhaps the biggest job confronting the person hired to run Saugus schools involves remedying problems that plagued local education before DeRuosi’s tenure.
Town educators have been unable to overcome the twin challenges of poor middle school test scores and retaining students whose families decide to send them out of town to private high schools.
Student test performance and student retention can’t be solved overnight, which is why the committee should be confident enough in its final choice for superintendent to hire someone for at least three years and, ideally, five years.
Recovering from COVID-19-imposed remote learning and completing the elementary school project will realistically take two years. A dedicated school committee working in lockstep with a confident superintendent can spend the next three years taking advantage of the state-of-the-art schools to boost academic rigor in Saugus.