Tech Glitch Delays Crucial Marblehead School Reopening Plan Vote

MARBLEHEAD, MA — The Marblehead School Committee was forced to delay its vote on a reopening plan for schools this fall to Monday after the Zoom meeting room it was using for Thursday's meeting quickly reached capacity.

Moving forward with the meeting would have been a violation of the state open meeting law. Monday is the deadline for school districts to submit reopening plans to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Previously on Patch: Marblehead Leaning Towards Remote Or Hybrid School Reopening

With the virtual meeting room at its 300-person capacity and a waiting list of residents waiting to listen in, School Committee Chairman Sarah Gold considered moving forward with the meeting. It was by far the largest attendance for any Marblehead municipal meeting since the town started using Zoom in March.

Parents who were listening in on the meeting were angry with the delay, calling the board members "incompetent" and suggesting the tech glitch was a ploy to delay the decision.

The board plans to post the presentation Marblehead Superintendent John Buckey was scheduled to deliver Thursday on the school system's reopening site and collect public comment by email ahead of Monday's meeting.

DESE charged school systems in June with developing three possible reopening plans: one that would involve full-time, in-person learning, one that would involve full-time, remote learning, and a third, hybrid model combining remote and in-person learning.

Dave Copeland covers Marblehead and other North Shore communities for Patch. He can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).