Marblehead board OKs school replacement study

MARBLEHEAD – School Committee members have finally taken the next step toward the replacement of the Glover School.Patricia Blackmer, Glover School Building Committee Chair, presented her School Committee colleagues with 21 pages of material Thursday and won their approval for the $158,000 feasibility study for the Glover’s replacement, as proposed by the Massachusetts School Building Authority.Committee members also authorized Blackmer to represent them at the MSBA, along with Superintendent of Schools Paul Dulac and Town Administrator Tony Sasso.Dulac will sign the agreement to conduct the feasibility study. The Glover Building Committee is in the process of choosing an architect to begin the design. The new school could be open by 2013, Blackmer told selectmen on Wednesday.The Glover will be replaced by a 310-student building for Grades 1-3, but if the Eveleth School is included in the project both schools will be replaced by a 425-student building for kindergarten-Grade 3.As of Sept. 1, enrollment at both schools was 380 – 300 students in Grades 1-3 at the Glover and 80 kindergartners at Eveleth – but that number could change now that school is in session.Blackmer, Glover-Eveleth Principal Mary Devlin and Dulac worked with the MSBA during the summer to provide justification for the town’s enrollment projections, which were higher than the state figures.Dulac said the MSBA based its projections on the town’s declining birth rate and Blackmer countered with numbers based on the town’s condominium developments. He praised Blackmer for putting the proposal together."It was two months of constant work," he said. "The MSBA said they had never seen a more convincing report."