New Marblehead superintendent opens school year on positive note

MARBLEHEAD – New Superintendent Greg Maass had one message for the teachers and staff who packed the Marblehead High auditorium Wednesday morning for orientation: they are all on the same team.And School Committee Chairman EuRim Chun told them that team starts the new school year as a winner: a Boston Magazine listing has placed Marblehead 24th out of 135 Massachusetts school districts.Chun recalled telling Maass that she believed he could take Marblehead to the top 10 in that list. “He said, ?Why not Number 1??” she said.Maass?s ceremonies drew heavily on community-building, from the presentation of the American Flag by local overseas veterans Ron Knight and Stephen Mitchell, “The Star Spangled Banner” sung by eighth-grade alto Paige Vigneron and the honoring of 54-year high school teacher Henry Juncker and nine other 30-plus-year teachers alongside the district?s newest educators.And when Maass?s new Interim School Business Manager Kevin Meagher inadvertently welcomed the teachers back to Winthrop (Meagher?s former district), Maass walked to the podium, put a fatherly arm around his shoulders and explained his mistake in a whisper.?I?m much better at numbers,” Meagher said.Maass quoted a former mentor of his: “As you see things happening, you adjust.”He told his audience how his father died when he was still young and his mother, now 86, told him, “I?m counting on you (to help her raise his younger siblings).” He read to them from Doris Kearns Goodwin?s baseball memoir, “Wait Till Next Year,” about the 1955 World Series champion Brooklyn Dodgers. He showed them a Red Sox cap signed by Bill Buckner and reminded them of Buckner?s 1986 error and how the Sox finally won the World Series.?This is next year for all of you,” he said, “and for me it?s an incredibly big next year? What you see with me is what you get? You will get my best every day.”