Marblehead Glover Principal Resigns After Taking Medical Leave

MARBLEHEAD, MA — Marblehead Public Schools will be looking to fill yet another position in school leadership after Interim Superintendent Theresa McGuinness said at Thursday night's School Committee meeting that Glover Elementary School Principal Hope Doran was resigning to pursue a position in another district.

Doran's resignation, effective Friday, came on the same night School Committee Chair Sarah Fox began the process of filling the open seat created with the resignation of School Committee member Meagan Taylor, effective immediately, last week.

Doran informed the district she was taking a leave of absence shortly after a student restraint incident at the Glover School in December that led to the paid administrative leave of four staff members, an ongoing third-party investigation into district protocols on restraint, and eventually the departure of two student services administrators following a vote of "no confidence" from the Marblehead Education Association.

McGuinness had said publicly that Doran's leave was not related to the restraint incident.

Marblehead High Assistant Principal Dan Richards has moved to Glover Elementary as its interim principal after Village School Principal Matthew Fox temporarily filled that role initially following Doran's leave. He has since moved back to the Village School.

Taylor resigned from the Marblehead School Committee on Jan. 8 five months after she was the only member of the Committee to vote against accepting the forced resignation of former Superintendent John Buckey, and after what became repeated back-and-forth exchanges with fellow Committee members that appeared to signal dysfunction within the Committee.

Sarah Fox on Thursday night gained authorization from the Committee to contact the Select Board to begin the process of replacing Taylor, which will include seeking letters of interest and then joint public interviews with members of the School Committee and Select Board.

She noted that scheduling that joint session was not easy when Emily Barron stepped down from the Committee in October 2022 and that it eventually took about three months before Tom Mathers was chosen to fill out the remainder of her term in January 2023.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)