Marblehead board puts fate of schools on hold

MARBLEHEAD – The Facilities Master Plan Committee practiced diplomacy Monday evening, leaving the eventual fate of the Glover and Gerry schools to the evolving master plan process.Committee members ended their 90-minute session with a vote to approve their October 2007 Master Plan subject to some wording changes. Committee member Amy Drinker, who chairs the School Committee, said she would get the School Committee’s approval as soon as possible.The School Committee meets Thursday evening. Drinker said she was ready to call a special School Committee meeting next week if needed so the plan can receive final approval and school officials can send it on its way.The changes in the report focused on the eventual fate of the Glover School and the Gerry School. The original draft of the report called for both buildings to be “retired,” but committee members pointed out that state officials and local residents may want to discuss that further, especially where the 100-year-old Gerry School is concerned.The committee approved changing the wording on both schools to, “To be determined in conjunction with the Massachusetts School Building Authority.”Superintendent of Schools Paul Dulac suggested that the report be sent to the Massachusetts School Building Authority before the MSBA October meeting. Marblehead is facing a competitive environment for school project assistance this year.Architect Brooke Trivas, an FMPC member who met with MSBA representatives Sept. 18, said the authority received 422 school proposals from 162 communities and the MSBA will only fund one project per community. Seventy-two of the 162 communities had submitted proposals for a single project as of Sept. 18 and 70 more have chosen a priority project. Marblehead and 19 other communities had not chosen a priority project.Since then the FMPC and School Committee have chosen a priority project – consolidation of the Glover and Eveleth elementary schools at a new expanded Eveleth School – and the FMPC wants to make sure the state authority hears that news as soon as possible.Trivas told the committee the state plans to fund 40-50 community projects this year and has already chosen 18 communities as pilot projects. Marblehead is not one of the 18 pilot communities and Trivas warned the FMPC that the funding process could be slow.Describing the authority as “a 13-member volunteer board,” Trivas questioned how many community projects such a board could approve at each meeting.