Marblehead Reacts to Superintendent's Sudden Resignation

After about two years at the helm in Marblehead, the town's Superintendent of Schools Greg Maass announced his resignation at a School Committee meeting Thursday night, much to the surprise of many local residents.

In a letter sent out to school staffers Thursday night, Maass said the decision to resign "was extremely difficult, and is deeply personal and private" and stemmed from his inability to work with members of the school committee.

"For some time, I've been questioning my compatibility from a leadership perspective, with some of the communities's representatives who sit on the School Committee," Maass said. "Given my experience in executive leadership roles, it's important to realize and understand, when real or perceived incompatibility can affect the educational programs and initiatives that are important for growth and improvement."

Maass' clashes with the School Committee have been well-documented. At a meeting earlier this month, Maass organized a mid-year evaluation aimed at looking how communication could be improved between the superintendent and senior staff.

The only specific example cited at that meeting was over the release of the names of four finalists for the high school principal's position.

Committee member Richard Nohelty complained that he learned that the four names were released to the media while he was sitting in the audience at a school function. When asked about the finalists, he said he could not comment because he had been bound to confidentiality in a memo from the superintendent.

"Given that my leadership style is collaborative, and one that I would label "organic," the conflicts that are occurring, I believe, will have a negative impact on the completion of a quality K-12 curriculum and instructional evaluation of this curriculum," Maass said in his email to staff members.

The decision has come to a surprise to many of our Facebook followers. Here's what some of them had to say Friday morning:

• Kelly Hanlon Rigby: This is really a disgrace on our town. If we want the best schools, we need to have people willing to make the difficult changes needed. And we need a school committee working with the sole objective of improving things in a cooperative fashion.
• Nancy Pierce Smith: Well lets hope they have something in his contract that states he is responsible to pay back the town the 10k it cost to move him here from wisconsin. I hope there is something that states this if he resigns before his contract is up. But probably not because marblehead is in the "black" budget wise so no worries here just move along.
• Jeff Williams: I think rather than try and get the 7k in relo back from him, MHD should try and get it back from the gaggle of goofs we elected to the committee. Nobody wants to work with them. They are self centered, short sighted and act like a pack of spoiled childeren. Go to one of ther meetings...
• Jocelyn Cook: Didnt he just get hired like 2 years ago?
• Celia Martin: What happend to the days of the Super staying forever? I grew up in MHD and that's how it always was. I think the town needs to look at the real problem here...

In March of 2011, Maass entered into a three-year contract with the School Committee at an annual salary of $179,000, replacing Paul Dulac, who retired after four years at the post.

Maass obtained a doctorate in educational administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

Maass has been in education for 36 years and started his career in Wisconson as a physical education and health teacher before accepting his first principalship in Iowa, where he spent seven years running a small k-12 school system.

What do you think of the resignation?

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