Marblehead School Committee Vacancy To Stay Open Until January

MARBLEHEAD, MA — The rush to fill the vacancy on the Marblehead School Committee has turned into a long pause.

After the planned joint meeting of the Select Board and School Committee to interview and vote on a replacement for Emily Barron, after her resignation in late October, was postponed from Wednesday night because one of the boards' members could not attend, Select Board Chair Moses Grader said it may now be mid- to late January before a new joint meeting can be scheduled.

"It looks like it will be sometime in January," Grader said. "It is impossible, really, to get everyone rallied up over the holidays in December. The reason we did not do it tonight is we had one member who was unable to attend for personal reasons. In that situation, I think the policy is really to schedule a time when all members can meet."

Beyond excluding one member from having a say on filling the void, Grader said he was concerned with having an even number of votes between the boards resulting "in a stalemate which would waste everyone's time."

Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer said the goal is to settle on dates when all five Select Board members can attend, then bring those dates to School Committee Chair Sarah Fox so she can see what matches with the four members that remain on that committee.

Kezer said all of the School Committee candidates have been notified of the postponement and asked to "stand by."

Barron resigned from the School Committee after she said she realized she unknowingly violated a conflict-of-interest provision within the town.

The School Committee was deadlocked on a way forward on Barron's vacancy — either to proceed with four members until the end of the term or choose a fifth member who would serve out Barron's term until the annual town election this spring — but Grader determined that, per state law, the vacancy needs to be filled as quickly as possible.

However, with the delay, the person who is seated on the School Committee will now serve less than five months before the term of what was Barron's seat is up in June.

The Select Board had set Nov. 30 as the deadline to receive letters of interest and applications for the opening.

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