Incumbent School Committee member Sarah Gold is aiming to win a third term in this year’s race.
Gold, who has been on the committee since 2018, served as chair from May 2019 to June 2022. She attended Boston College, where she obtained a master’s degree in counseling psychology and is a licensed mental health counselor, currently working as the school counselor at the Tower School.
Originally from the Chicago area, Gold moved to Marblehead in 2011 with her family. Her two sons are currently in the fifth and 10th grades.
During the last School Committee race in 2020, the Marblehead League of Women Voters hosted a candidate panel via MHTV, where Gold, then running for her first reelection, laid out what she believed the responsibilities of the School Committee are.
“I feel strongly that the committee is tasked with working collaboratively to meet the needs of our children, parents, and teachers of our district, as well as the Marblehead taxpayers,” she said.
She added that there are “substantial financial challenges that lay ahead for our school district,” and said that she believes each of those challenges should be made with fiscally-responsible decisions.
“My goal as a School Committee member is to ensure the Marblehead Public Schools system remains the pillar of educational success that it is known to be as well as to support the potential growth towards even greater accomplishments,” Gold said.
As a licensed mental health counselor, Gold’s bid for School Committee in 2018 focused on the mental health crisis in students.
“The American Psychological Association has found that 50 percent of our school children are exposed to traumatic events throughout their childhood,” said Gold. “That is a number that can’t be ignored when we start to talk about school safety and helping our kids.”
As the Tower School counselor, Gold said in 2020 that her work with kids gives her additional understanding of how students and families experience schooling.
Gold’s previous reelection bid came during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which she stated that students will need the maximum amount of support, with the effects of the pandemic spanning years.
“There has probably never been a time in our history when our children need social-emotional support within their school day more than they will in the coming few years,” Gold said.
As of the Weekly News’ press time, Sarah Gold could not be reached for direct comment.