Students and staff of Rosedell Elementary School have come together to honor a beloved campus supervisor who died during winter break of this school year.
Jennifer Hauser was a kind and compassionate woman, said Principal Elizabeth Balena. She said Hauser just loved the children in her life, from her nieces and nephews to the students at Rosedell.
“She’s a mother of five and she just loved children. In fact, her son had just recently gotten married, and they were expecting their first child, and she was so proud and excited to see them become parents,” said Balena.
It was her mission to make every student on campus feel safe, seen and heard, added Balena. Hauser took her job very seriously, but she did a “beautiful job” balancing allowing the kids to be kids but holding them to the rules and expectations.
“Hearing them out when they needed to be heard and being that kind, listening ear when they needed that, showing empathy and compassion but still holding them accountable for their actions,” said Balena.
Students have taken the time to write letters to Hauser to send to her family and as Balena scanned them, she said it was evident that the students would greatly miss having her on campus.
“All children just really felt a love for her and just felt a connection instantly with her,” said Balena. “We had kids that would struggle on the yard or kids that would struggle with other students, and they would be assigned to Miss Jennifer. Like Miss Jennifer is your person you can talk to.”
Balena said she had one student in particular who was hit hard by Hauser’s death because she was the constant in his life. The student knew that, Monday through Friday, Hauser would be there always.
Another Rosedell student, identified as Ari, spoke at the Saugus Union School District governing board meeting on April 1 about Hauser and the impact she left on the school.
Ari said she had found out about Hauser’s death over winter break in December and said it was hard to come back to school without seeing Hauser’s smile greeting her.
“It was hard to know she wasn’t there anymore. Miss Jennifer helped us if we had an argument or if we had no one to play with us,” said Ari. “One time I told her I didn’t get along very well with my sister, and she gave me some great advice. She always wanted us to be happy, not only at school but at home, too.”
Ari talked about how Hauser always was happy to see her with her friends and if she was ever sad, she would always ask what was wrong.
“Every day we miss Miss Jennifer so much. I get sad when I think about her and how she’s not there for us anymore or her own family anymore,” said Ari.
Ari added that the Rosedell community came together with an idea to memorialize Hauser on campus so that students could have a place to feel connected to her again.
“Our school PTA, sixth grade class of 2025, principal and school community are working on making a memorial where we can remember her smiling at us and making us feel better throughout the day,” said Ari.
She asked the board members to help in any way they could to make sure the memorial could be placed. During the May 20 board meeting, the board unanimously approved the memorial.
Balena said that after Ari spoke at the board meeting, it helped get the ball moving faster to put the memorial together to help the students cope with the loss of Hauser.
To remember Hauser, the community decided to create a plaque with an engraving on it and place it on a decorated tile wall next to the library. Balena said the wall had tiles of other past families who had attended Rosedell, and the community wanted to place Hauser among them and show the lives she touched.
During the sixth-grade class of 2025 promotion, Balena said she was hoping to present the plaque and have it installed on the wall this summer.
“I think everybody on our school campus at Rosedell or any of the Saugus schools, those that work on a campus, we really try to positively impact the lives of children,” said Balena. “Every day that Jennifer showed up, I think that she really poured her heart into her work, and she tried to be present every day, just to make sure that her impact would be felt by all. That students just felt loved and seen and heard. Going back to she was a mother of five, I think she took on all of the students here kind of feeling that motherly instinct towards them and wanting to make sure that she was just someone that they could lean on and to look to.”
