Marblehead School Committee Member Resigns Effective Immediately

MARBLEHEAD, MA — Meagan Taylor resigned from the Marblehead School Committee on Monday five months after she was the only member of the Committee to accept 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.

Taylor, who was not at the most recent School Committee meeting last week, was also the lone School Committee who did not vote to support the hiring of Theresa McGuinness as the interim superintendent while the district finds Buckey's permanent replacement, and declined to change her vote when School Committee Chair Sarah Fox asked for a somewhat ceremonial unanimous vote in support of the new interim superintendent.

Taylor during that meeting expressed support for Acting Superintendent of Business and Finance Michelle Cresta to stay on in the role — which Cresta said at the meeting she would prefer not to do as she instead wanted to go back to the finance role.

During last week's School Committee meeting, McGuinness announced that she was no longer seeking the permanent role as superintendent — which she said would be her intention when she was hired in October — and Cresta said she was leaving the district to take a similar post in Manchester-Essex.

Fox confirmed Taylor's resignation to Patch on Monday afternoon and said it will be addressed at the next School Committee meeting on Jan. 18.

"Following that meeting next steps and timelines will be made available to the public," Fox said. "We thank Ms. Taylor for her years of service and wish her the best in her future endeavors."

This is the second consecutive term that the town has had to fill a vacancy on the School Committee after a combined meeting of the Select Board and School Committee chose Tom Mathers to fill the vacancy created when Emily Barron stepped down in October 2022 when she said she discovered she had violated a conflict of interest provision in the town government.

Mathers said when he applied for that opening that he did not intend to run for re-election to a full term.

The balance of the School Committee then took another big turn during the annual town election in June when former Chair Sarah Gold lost her re-election bid, while Jennifer Schaeffner and Brian Ota were voted in as new Committee members, at the same time Fox was retained as Chair.

Shortly after the election and townwide vote defeating a proposed general tax override that Buckey said was necessary to preserve 32 equivalent staff positions and related services, the School Committee began the process of seeking Buckey's dismissal with two years remaining on his contract.

(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.)