Marblehead Narrows Interim Superintendent Search To 2

MARBLEHEAD, MA — The Marblehead Interim Superintendent Screening Committee has narrowed its search to two candidates who will both be available for public interviews next week.

Marblehead School Committee Chair Sarah Fox said the screening committee reviewed several applications and performed interviews before selecting Dr. Theresa McGuinnes and Dr. Jannell D. Pearson-Campbell as the two finalists.

Both candidates will have public interviews on Monday at the Marblehead High library.

The interim superintendent will lead the district while a search is conducted to find a full-time successor to John Buckey, who left the district midway through his contract as part of a mutual agreement with the School Committee this summer.

Assistant Superintendent of Operations Michelle Cresta is currently serving as acting superintendent.

McGuinness, who lives in Swampscott, was the principal of the Village School in Marblehead from 2012 through 2016 before leaving for Watertown Public Schools, where she has been the assistant superintendent for the past seven years.

Pearson-Campbell was the assistant director of special education in the Waltham Public Schools from 2015 through 2020 and has since served as the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning at Old Rochester and interim superintendent at Northampton Public Schools.

"This is the interim search," Fox noted during an August School Committee meeting detailing the timeline for the search. "This is not the full-time superintendent search so we will also be having another search possible as early as February."

(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.)