Marblehead Select Board Moves To Fill School Committee Vacancy

MARBLEHEAD, MA — The question of when — or even if — the current vacancy on the Marblehead School Committee will be filled apparently become a little more clear on Wednesday night when the Select Board voted to put a process in place to fill the void created by Emily Barron's recent resignation.

Barron resigned from the School Committee late last month after she said 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 Select Board Moses Grader determined that, per state law, the vacancy needs to be filled as quickly as possible.

Grader said the Select Board had received written notice of the vacancy from School Committee Chair Sarah Fox and officially announced the opening during Wednesday's meeting. He said the notice will be put on the town website and provided to the public through the media on Thursday.

The Select Board then set Nov. 30 as the deadline to receive letters of interest and applications for the opening. Those will then be distributed to the School Committee and Superintendent's Office with a preliminary date of Dec. 7 targeted for a joint roll call meeting of the Select Board and School Committee to interview publicly and chose a successful candidate.

"The Select Board and the School Committee will formulate questions together for the interview," Grader said. "And then we'll conduct those interviews at the joint roll call meeting. So the process will be pretty straightforward and clear.

"My next step is to reach out to (Fox) and reach a mutually convenient time to have the roll call."

That process differs from what occurred in a recent opening on the Danvers School Committee in which only the School Committee considered applicants, determined finalists, and voted to fill the void on its own board.

Fox had said that a recent precedent indicated that the School Committee could leave the position unfilled for the remaining months before the annual town election. The School Committee held a vote — which was deadlocked at 2-2 — on whether to fill the position or leave it open until the spring town vote.

Fox told Committee members during a public budget forum last week that she intended to work with the Select Board to make sure the School Committee had a voice in any discussion on its own makeup through the next town election.

(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.)