Marblehead board gives Maass power to sign contracts

MARBLEHEAD – It’s official: the School Committee has designated Superintendent of Schools Greg Maass to sign all contracts relating to the new $25.4 million Glover School project.That will include the Massachusetts School Building Authority funding agreement, which will provide 40 percent reimbursement to the town, and the MSBA Project Scope and Budget Agreement, which lists the areas where the town is entitled to that reimbursement.Committee members EuRim Chun, Dick Nohelty and Kathy Leonardson approved the designation of Maas as the contract signer at a special meeting Monday.”We called this meeting because we wanted to meet the time frame for (the MSBA and) the selectmen’s review,” Chun said.The MSBA sent the funding agreement and project scope and budget agreement to Marblehead officials Aug. 24 and the town has 30 days to sign them. The School Committee is not scheduled to meet again until Sept. 22, two days before the 30-day deadline.The documents will be reviewed by the Glover School Building Committee Wednesday evening and selectmen are scheduled to discuss the documents the same night. Maass is scheduled to attend the selectmen’s meeting. Nohelty, who also co-chairs the Glover Committee, said, “The selectmen will vote whether or not to authorize us to do what the town approved.”Committee members had some questions about the MSBA before they voted.Leonardson asked if the agreements were the same as the ones approved for the Marblehead Village School. Nohelty said they were substantially the same but noted that the Village School was a repair project and the Glover School will be a new school.Nohelty also noted that Chun, the School Committee chair, did not receive copies of the agreements. He and Chun pointed out that the Glover committee is a subcommittee of the School Committee and the School Committee has the final say on project spending.