Thomas Mathers Picked For Marblehead School Committee Vacancy

MARBLEHEAD, MA — The experience of Thomas Mathers having previously served on a school committee on the North Shore helped made him the choice of the joint meeting of the Marblehead Select Board and School Committee to fill the Marblehead School Committee vacancy until the next town election in June.

Mathers, who edged out Paul Baker and Ray Hansen on the second vote with a majority of five of the nine voting members between the committees, said he will not be a candidate for re-election in June.

Each of the six finalists in attendance during Monday's joint meeting answered the same questions during the public interview. The Select Board and School Committee members then took a short recess before returning for the roll call vote.

"It stood out to me that one candidate, in particular, having served on a School Committee in the past really understood all the pieces coming into it," School Committee Chair Sarah Fox said in casting her vote for Mathers, "as far as how the budget is made, what our purview is, and it's appealing to me that (Mathers) said he was not interested in doing anything but steadying the ship."

"Qualifications are important and (so are) understanding the intricacies that are involved with the town vs. the schools and what that looks like," Select Board member Alexa Singer said of her Mathers vote. "And also the importance that this short-term appointment leading to then a situation where the decision is then (given) back to the voters as well ... as well as the ability to completely understand the role from day one and execute it."

Select Board Chair Moses Grader also voted for Mathers on the first vote, with School Committee member Alison Taylor and Select Board member Erin Noonan joining for the majority in the second vote after both Mathers and Baker received three votes in the first round of voting.

Mathers moved to Marblehead in 2017. He is a former U.S. Army captain and Apache attack helicopter pilot who was also on the Butler University Board of Trustees.

He is the founder, president and chief executive officer of Allievex Corporation, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel therapies for the treatment of rare pediatric neurodegenerative diseases based in Marblehead.

"A lot of people get really hung up on titles, and roles, and responsibilities," Mathers said during his interview. "I've generally found in my experience if you get qualified people who are motivated, people will sort it out.

"Your role as somebody on a school committee, or leading an organization, is to help shepherd everyone to finding their way to build an effective team."

Mathers fills the vacancy created when Emily Barron stepped down in October when she said she discovered she had violated a conflict of interest provision in the town government.

(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.)