The School Committee assembled Thursday, Sept. 21, for its latest regularly scheduled gathering. The meeting lasted 90 minutes as the group discussed a variety of pertinent topics, including the need for clarity within the school handbooks and the future of the building that was once the Coffin School.
The committee set out with a tentative goal of approving the newest revisions for handbooks for the elementary, middle, and high schools. Acting Superintendent of Schools Michelle Cresta introduced the topic and expressed a desire to have them reviewed and revised earlier in the school year moving forward.
“I think we did a pretty good job this year,” Cresta said. “However I do think we really need to take a deep dive and have these prepared for you next spring so that these are approved well before the end of the school year, so that we can … get these off to families as soon as school opens next year.”
School Committee Chair Sarah Fox explained that a recently discovered issue with the school handbooks is that they had been referencing a specific homework policy that the district eliminated in 2018. Sarah Fox noted that a separate legal counsel had been tasked with reviewing policy for the handbooks in recent years and she was surprised that it had not caught the discrepancy. Representatives from Marblehead elementary schools and Veterans Middle School Principal Matthew Fox were present to testify that the current homework policies may be perceived as unclear. Sarah Fox explained why she feels it is important for the policy to be made complete and transparent.
“When we did forums in the past the number one thing we heard from students and parents was the stress of doing and being everything,” Sarah Fox said. “It is important to have it be clear to people what the expectation is. Because if they see a handbook they can see ‘my expectation is that my student will have three and a half to four hours of homework each night. So we need to dial back on maybe signing up for all these activities.’”
Committee member Jenn Schaeffner expressed that the most important thing the committee needs to clarify as it pertains to the middle school handbook is which four subjects define the core curriculum and approximately how long the homework assignments for core curriculum should take.
Nonetheless, the committee approved the revised school handbooks via a roll-call vote. The vote passed 4-0 with Schaeffner choosing to abstain. The committee expressed plans to work to further improve aspects of the handbooks in need of clarity moving forward.
The future of the Coffin School structure discussion began toward the conclusion of the meeting. Sarah Fox explained that regardless of whether the property is repurposed for education in the future or not, the physical building in place has to go.
“The building on the property is not only a nuisance, if they were to sell it it would devalue the property,” she said.
Cresta broke down what possible funds could be used for the property if the School Committee were to end up keeping it within their purview.
“The only available funds that could possibly be used would be surplus funds left over from the Brown/Gerry School project,” Cresta explained. “And if we did use some of those funds they need to go to Town Meeting because it needs to be repurposed. It was voted as a debt exclusion, so Town Meeting would have to reauthorize those funds that are currently authorized but not yet borrowed for the project.”
Sarah Fox responded to a recommendation by committee member Meagan Taylor to have the Facilities Subcommittee make a recommendation to the School Committee on whether to maintain jurisdiction on the property.
“The Facilities Subcommittee did take a vote on our land use last spring,” Sarah Fox said. “At that time the recommendation that was voted unanimously was to retain all of these properties… the reasoning behind that was our new school — the day it opened its doors— was already beyond capacity for what it was built for.”
She added that the north end of the town is the most in need of a school if one were ever to be added.
The next School Committee meeting is expected to include a recap and discussion of Committee member Alison Taylor’s upcoming meeting with Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer, Select Board Chair Erin Noonan, and Finance Director Alicia Benjamin pertaining to the use of American Rescue Plan Act funds for the schools, as well as an analysis of the town’s MCAS test results.