SAUGUS — The Saugus School Committee is calling for the resignation of board member Arthur Grabowski after he refused to apologize for racist remarks he allegedly made in January against the district’s non-English speaking employees.
During Wednesday’s School Committee meeting, Chair Thomas Whittredge said that while the committee did not originally want Grabowski to resign, its members now feel that the situation has reached a breaking point.
“We asked you to do all this stuff. We asked you to apologize, own up to your mistakes, take sensitivity training,” Whittredge told Grabowski Wednesday. “But you decided to take a different route.”
On March 11, the board held an executive session to address a complaint it received on Feb. 7 from Assistant Operations Manager Steve Napolitana, who accused Grabowski of making racist statements toward some of the district’s maintenance workers in the presence of Napolitana and School Superintendent Dr. David DeRuosi.
Minutes from that closed session requested by The Item state that on Jan. 27, Grabowski interrupted a meeting that took place between Napolitana and DeRuosi inside the superintendent’s office at the Roby Administrative Building to complain about snow removal at the town’s middle-high school complex, telling the two men, “this is why we need guys who can speak English to use the snowblowers.”
When DeRuosi asked Grabowski what speaking English had to do with using snowblowers, Grabowski allegedly replied: “(Non-English speaking workers) are not mechanically inclined to do so.”
During the executive session, Grabowski, who was previously barred from entering school buildings in 2017 following an altercation with a different staff member in DeRuosi’s office, said his comments were not racist and had been made out of concern for a possible safety hazard.
“It bothers me that we spend money on equipment, and if you have people who don’t have the ability to operate the equipment, (it) may be misused,” Grabowski told the board. “It is a safety issue. People lose limbs in snowblowers. I want equipment used in a safe manner.”
Following its discussion, the board unanimously voted to sanction Grabowski’s conduct and directed him to stop visiting school buildings unannounced. He was also asked to take an online sensitivity training class and apologize directly to Napolitana and explain the meaning behind his comments. At the time, the board emphasized that it was not asking for Grabowski’s resignation because it did not want to embarrass Grabowski or create a spectacle for the town.
Grabowski later told The Item that the incident in question was prompted by his dissatisfaction with the way snow was being cleared from the complex, adding that he felt there had been issues with snow removal since the previous School Committee eliminated the district’s custodial staff in 2019 in favor of hiring an outside company.
He again denied that his comments were racially motivated.
“I served in the jungles of Vietnam and on either side of me were people of different races, people of different ethnic backgrounds, and I never held any issues with (anyone),” he said. “I’ve been called a lot of things in my life, but never have I been called a racist.”
However, on Wednesday night, Whittredge said the board had since changed its stance after learning Grabowski failed to acknowledge any wrongdoing in comments he made to local media outlets about the incident.
“You have to start taking responsibility for your words, Mr. Grabowski,” Whittredge said Wednesday. “We have a large ELL (English language learner) student population … and a lot of them do not feel secure, and a lot of them do not feel accepted. We’re supposed to be creating an inclusive and safe environment for all kids — not just the ones who speak English.”
He noted the district had not received any prior complaints about snow removal.
Committee member John Hatch said he was “surprised and disappointed” to learn of Grabowski’s later comments to the press, while committee member Ryan Fisher said he was worried about the implications behind Grabowski’s initial statements, calling them “logically absurd.”
“Many of our students, English is not their first language, and I know that if a teacher were to tell a student at a young age that they are not inclined towards particular skill sets, that’s something that’s going to follow them,” Fisher said. “That’s something that could be damaging.”
Committee member Dennis Gould added: “I respect Arthur … but I can’t support him in this matter. What he said was racist, plain and simple.”
Grabowski called the committee’s statements “defamatory” and said the board should enforce its policy disallowing defamatory remarks.
Although the board acknowledged it does not hold power to remove Grabowski from his position, all four remaining members voted to strip him of his positions on the Finance and Facilities subcommittees.
“He refuses to own up to his behavior,” Whittredge told The Item. “We have so much going on in this district right now that should be celebrated. The focus should be on the kids. We come back to school full-time on April 5, we have the superintendent search going on, we’re going to be moving schools over the summer. This is the time we should be focusing on the kids and not a grown man making racist remarks.”
Elyse Carmosino can be reached at [email protected].