Town's New Superintendent Settling In

It has been a whirlwind September for Gregory Maass, Marblehead's new Superintendent of Schools, who said the first step to getting acclimated to a new town should always be opening your door to the local community.

"The first thing you've got to do, from a leadershp persepective, is to learn form others both in the system and the community," Maass said. "I've made myself available to anyone who has wanted to talk and I'm glad to say that I've had hundreds of people come in."

What he's gained from speaking to local residents and community leaders, Maass said, is a sense of the "community culture" and the "culture of the school district."

After all, it was Marblehead's commitment to providing teachers with the tools necessary to offer local students a great education that drew him to seek the school district's top post in February.

"The culture here is one where people really want to serve the students," Maass said. "That was one of the things that drew me here - the passion for education and the lifelong pursuit of greatness."

In March, Maass entered into a with the School Committee at an annual salary of $179,000, replacing Paul Dulac, who retired after four years at the helm.

Maass obtained a doctorate in educational administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

Maass has been in education for 36 years and started his career in Wisconson as a physical education and health teacher before accepting his first principalship in Iowa, where he spent seven years running a small k-12 school system.

"It was a very small district," Maass said. "All of the schools were on one campus and it was a great learning ground for me. I learned something from all of the different grade levels and I carry that with me to this day."

After returning to Wisconsin, Maass said he had the opportunity to see the other side of the coin when he served as superintendent of a school system in Green Bay that had 20,000 students, 3,000 staff members and a budget of $270 million.

"I've worked in small districts and large districts and I've learned a lot from both experiences," Maass said.

When asked how he felt about a recent article in Boston Magazine that ranked Marblehead's school system 24th out of 135 in the state, Maass said it was a good indicator of how much work had been done before his arrival and said he hopes to head up the list in the years to come.

"I just go back to my years as an athletic coach. Every year, we told the teams we coached that we wanted to win the conference. We didn't always do that - but the pursuit of greatness was what we were always after," Maass said. "So I've told people, let's figure out what they base the rankings on and see what we can improve upon to move up the list. I don’t see any reason why we can’t be number one."