~ The Old Sachem ~ A brief history of Saugus schools – Part 3

By Bill Stewart

In an earlier edition I wrote of the first Saugus School opened in 1775 in Saugus Center, which ran from first grade to high school. It was sold to Richard Shute (1801) when the next school was built, located southwest of the meeting house. This school was destroyed by fire in 1820. The Center School was built in the center at 25 Main St. in 1821 and remained until 1896. In 1896 the Roby School was opened at 23 Main St. and continued to be used until the 1960s, when it was turned into the Saugus Public Schools central office. In 2021, the Roby School was turned over to the town, and the School Department’s administrative offices were moved to the Belmonte STEAM Academy, located within a separate wing. That was all part of consolidation of the school district into three buildings. The Center School remains today as the Town Hall Annex.

The Junior High School had two schools, part of the high school and the Sweetser, which was opened in 1926. Students from Cliftondale and East Saugus were assigned to the Sweetser. I attended the Felton School on Central Street – where the Senior Center exists today – starting in the fall of 1946. I attended the Junior High School as an adjunct to the high school. I then went to the Saugus High School in the fall of 1948 and graduated in the spring of 1952. It included four levels: a basement, first and second floor with classrooms and a third floor with a laboratory and a study hall. The first floor also included an auditorium, where we celebrated holidays and had shows. The motto of Saugus schools was and is “What you want to be different in the world as a result of what you do.”

My children were not so lucky. In 1963 a disgruntled former student started a fire, which brought down the high school, and only the junior high building survived. They went to the new school just off Main Street up beside Route One. Will, Bob, Mike and Ellen attended this new single-story school, which was near where the new football field is today. Tom went to St. Johns and Charlie went to the Belmonte and then the high school. This temporary school was not very well built and did not provide a fine building for schooling. The single-story structure included a cafeteria, offices, classrooms and a gymnasium. When this new building was opened in 1955, all middle school classes were moved to the old high school. The Belmonte was named for Augustine J. Belmonte, a Saugus policeman, who was killed in the line of duty.

Among some notable events was the strike by high school students on April 21, 1914, in support of Principle James F. Butterworth, who had resigned under pressure of the school committee. The students returned the next day with the condition that the committee would hold a public meeting hearing on the position of the principal. The committee refused on the reason that Butterworth was not entitled, as he had resigned. A special town meeting was established to create a committee to investigate the matter. The committee sided with Butterworth and asked all the members of the school committee to resign along with the entire faculty. Meanwhile Butterworth accepted the position of Superintendent of Schools in Bradford, Pennsylvania, and the argument was moot.

In 1994 two students – high school freshmen – were expelled for smuggling a loaded sawed-off shotgun onto school property. Saugus police responded and quelled the situation.

I was part of the situation as a freshman when the riot broke out in the Lynn football stadium between Saugus and Beverly. Area police had to be called and came from as far as Revere. The game was never finished.

The current Middle-High School will be in place for many years along with the Belmonte. The Veterans School will also be around for many years. But the Ballard, Lynnhurst, Oaklandvale and Waybright probably will either be remade or done away with.

So ends the saga of school systems in Saugus.

  (Editor’s Note: Bill Stewart, who is better known to Saugus Advocate readers as “The Old Sachem,” writes a weekly column – sometimes about sports. He also opines on current or historical events or famous people.)