Reporter's Notebook: Heard At School Committee

What happened, exactly, at the Marblehead School Committee meeting Thursday night?

Village School oversight 

After the business of electing a new chairman, the committee received an update from the Village School Building Oversight Committee.

Members of the oversight committee at the meeting were Selectman Mike Rockett, former School Committee chairman Rob Dana and Amy Drinker, another former School Committee chairman.

Dana answered many questions from the committee about work being done at the Village School, which has undergone a multi-million dollar renovation.

But the meeting grew a little testy when Nohelty asked Rockett to speak to the committee about work orders over the past couple of months, with the project now down to $1.5 million under budget.

Nohelty said the oversight committee had not been forthcoming in communicating with school committee about change orders and what is happening at the site.

At one point, Rockett asked, "What are you suggesting?"

Nohelty said, "I'm not suggesting anything."

Dana said after the meeting that the building committee needs more leeway in making decisions and needs to be able to complete the work on time.

"It would cost a lot more and we wouldn't get done on time," Dana said.

Drinker said not everything is in the original contract, but everything is in the scope of the work set last April.

"We would have added 12 months if we went to school committee every time," Drinker said.

"You're the subcommittee, come to the public meeting," Nohelty said later. "They want us to go to their meetings."

Change in Leadership

Patricia Blackmer abruptly resigned as chairman of the committee, having only just taken over the chair last May from Dick Nohelty.

EuRim Chun, who was the vice chair, was elected chairman. The new vice chairman is Jonathan Lederman, who was nominated to vice chairman byKathleen Leonardson.

It all happened in a flash, and discussion was shut down by Chun after the election.

"I could have had this conversation last night on camera, but we had work to do," Chun said on Friday.

Nohelty, who nominated Lederman as chairman, said the next day that the committee under the leadership of Blackmer was not being run properly.

Nohelty criticized the election of Chun, and said he didn't know of Blackmer's decision until just before the meeting.

"It's indicative of how things have been done," Nohelty said.