Marblehead board supports vocational school merger

MARBLEHEAD – Selectmen support the proposed merger of the North Shore Technical High School and Essex Agricultural High School – and they’re putting it in writing.Marbleheader Marcia L. Sweeney, vice chairman of the North Shore Regional Vocational Technical School District Committee, and Amelia O’Malley, school superintendent, visited the selectmen last week to discuss the merger.Board members voted to support the merger and give Sweeney and O’Malley a letter of endorsement, which they can include in a lengthy presentation packet.The district has until Dec. 15 to get the necessary approvals that the state requires – 75 percent of their 16-member communities – and Sweeney said some other towns have scheduled special town meetings to vote on the matter. She was optimistic that the proposal would reach 75 percent by Halloween.The proposal is for a new $134 million school on Route 62 in Danvers, scaled down from the original $180 million design proposed nearly four years ago. After state reimbursement and capital bond program coverage and the $4 million sale of the current building it will cost $35.17 million. Construction is expected to begin in 2012 and the school will open in the fall of 2013.The new building will have the space to absorb many of the 500 students turned away by the two merging schools this fall.Marblehead sends eight students to the vocational school and one to the agricultural school, but some of those turned away each year are from Marblehead, Sweeney told the board."We should have vocational education available for every student that wants it but thousands of children are being turned away," she said.Selectman William Woodfin praised the school for its "green" design features but cautioned the presenters: "We don’t know what vocational education will look like in five to 10 years," he said.O’Malley assured him that the designs are "flexible."