Marblehead parents voice concerns of new school plans

MARBLEHEAD – Traffic was a major concern of parents at Wednesday morning’s community forum on the Facilities Master Plan Committee’s school construction plans.A Clifton Avenue mother and father, who attended the 8:30 a.m. program at the Marblehead High auditorium, pointed out that the Eveleth School is adjacent to Clifton Avenue, a street that motorists frequently use as a shortcut from Atlantic Avenue to Humphrey Street, and expressed their concerns about the safety of children crossing that street to get to the school.Former Finance Committee Chairman Clarles Gessner, who served during the construction of the high school, called their morning meeting “a dress rehearsal” for tonight’s meeting at the high school library at 7, which will be broadcast on Cable TV.The FMPC and School Committee propose closing the Glover School and rebuilding the Eveleth School as a two-story building for 400 students, the combined Glover-Eveleth enrollment.The Glover School will eventually be declared a surplus building and turned over to the selectmen, who will decide its future.Patricia Blackmer, who chairs the FMPC, said the construction plan would address sidewalk construction and traffic concerns and School Committee Chair Amy Drinker said the question was a good one but “a little premature.”Under the new rules established for the Massachusetts School Building Authority, Marblehead’s Glover-Eveleth proposal has moved to the so-called Feasibility Phase, in which local officials and the MSBA will spend six to 18 months discussing the project in detail, collaboratively.In the next two months, the School Committee will request proposals for an Owner’s Project Manager to guide the town through the feasibility phase, and select a feasibility designer through the MSBA designer selection process.Meanwhile the committee will place articles in the Town Warrant, seeking funds to replace the heating system at the Marblehead Village School and windows and a roof at the Gerry School, as well as security and technology improvements.Gessner was optimistic about the timing of the school projects. “Interest rates are down and construction projects are slowing up, so we might get a break on the cost,” he said.