By Anne Marie Tobin
Item Staff
PEABODY — The search for a new school superintendent in Peabody is officially underway and the question of who is going to lead the district in the interim has been settled.
At a meeting on Dec. 18, the School Committee took a big first step in filling the void left last month by the unexpected death of Superintendent Cara Murtagh. The committee voted unanimously to hire former Peabody Veterans Memorial High School graduate and teacher, Dr. Marc Kerble, as interim Superintendent of Schools.
The committee also instructed School Committee Chairman and Mayor Ted Bettencourt to contact the Massachusetts Association of School Committees to begin the search for a permanent superintendent.
In a statement issued the following day in a robo-call, Bettencourt said the committee was “particularly impressed with the breadth of Dr. Kerble’s teaching and administrative experience.
“We feel confident that Dr. Kerble will provide the leadership and stability our school community needs.”
School committee member Beverley Griffin-Dunne concurred.
“We were all so thoroughly impressed with his background and accomplishments,” she said. “He’s always had an excellent reputation in the education world. He will bring forward a very positive relationship for us this year and will help us heal and carry Cara’s mission forward.”
Kerble’s career in education spans more than five decades. He spent 16 years as a special education teacher in the Peabody public schools. Most recently, he served as superintendent of the Newburyport Public Schools from 2010-2013.
He previously worked as an assistant superintendent in dual capacities in Winchester. Following retirement, Kerble was the chief academic officer at a private school in Newton for special education students and then worked as an interim elementary school assistant principal in Marlborough.
Kerbe is coming off a two-year stint working as a District Reviewer for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) Association.
One of the first assignments in his state job involved reviewing Peabody’s public school system, an experience that Griffin-Dunne says gives Kerble unmatched institutional knowledge.
“I believe the first audit he conducted for the DESE was at Peabody, so he is well-versed and very familiar with what we do here in Peabody,” she said. “Having conducted that review sets him apart from others, so that is an added benefit. He already knows the community and his learning curve will not be as big as others who do not have his background and knowledge.”
Griffin-Dunne said she was not surprised that Kerble was the committee’s choice to lead the district as it makes the transition from Murtagh to a permanent superintendent over the next few months.
“During my time on the school committee, whenever we had a discussion about new superintendents or interim superintendents, Mark’s name was always mentioned,” said Griffin-Dunne. “So I am not surprised at all and I truly believe he is the right person to lead Peabody’s schools until Cara’s successor is chosen. I remember him as being a leader going way back to when I was an eighth-grader in the high school band and he was a senior on the football team. It’s also touching that Cara’s father Jack was Mark’s sixth grade teacher at the Kiley School.”
Anne Marie Tobin can be reached at [email protected].
