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OPINION
SPORTS
EDUCATION
Comfort me with goulash
Magicians repeat as champs at Ocean State Invitational
MHS’ student newspaper now in the Current
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IN THIS ISSUE
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MARBLEHEAD, MA PERMIT NO. 25
NEWS FOR PEOPLE, NOT FOR PROFIT.
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October 04, 2023
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VOLUME 1, ISSUE NO. 43
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MARBLEHEADCURRENT.ORG
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ON SOCIAL @MHDCURRENT
SUPER NEWS
Schools one step closer to new leadership BY LEIGH BLANDER The School Committee was expected to meet Monday evening, Oct. 2, for public interviews with two finalists for the district’s interim superintendent position. One of the candidates is a familiar face: Theresa McGuinness, who was the Village School principal from 2012 to 2016. The other candidate is Jannell D. Pearson-Campbell, who recently completed an interim superintendent job in western Massachusetts. McGuinness was a finalist when Marblehead hired a
The School Committee was scheduled to meet on Oct. 2, after the Current’s print deadline. For coverage of Mnday’s meeting, including the results of a possible vote, visit MarbleheadCurrent.org.
»School Committee members, acting super say they can’t find deleted texts. Page 2. permanent superintendent in 2020. That job ultimately went to John Buckey. The School Committee came to a controversial separation agreement with Buckey in August, without ever disclosing why it wanted him to leave. Upon leaving the Village School, McGuinness, a Swampscott resident, went to Watertown, where she
is currently the assistant superintendent and did a stint as the district’s acting superintendent as well. School Committee member Brian Ota worked as vice principal at Village under McGuinness. Pearson-Campbell last worked as interim superintendent of the Northampton Public Schools from 2022 to June 2023. Before that, she was an assistant superintendent of teaching and learning at Old Rochester Regional School District from 2020 to 2022.
COURTESY PHOTOS
The two finalists for Marblehead’s interim superintendent job — Jannell D. Pearson-Campbell, left, and Theresa McGuinness — were set for public interviews on Monday, Oct. 2.
FALL-ING FOR GOOD
Pumpkins for a purpose
DRUG USE
Overdoses prompt calls for help BY LEIGH BLANDER
CURRENT PHOTO / LEIGH BLANDER
Two-thousand pumpkins will be on the lawn of Clifton Lutheran and sold to benefit a Navajo community.
Local ‘patch’ benefits Navajo community BY LEIGH BLANDER Clifton Lutheran Church launched its annual pumpkin sale today with
1,400 pumpkins displayed on its front lawn at 150 Humphrey St. Another 600 pumpkins will be delivered and sold later in October. “A big shout-out to the Marblehead High School Interact Club, Scout Troop 79, parishioners and neighbors who helped us unload all the pumpkins,” Rev. Jim Bixby told the Current.
This is the seventh year that Clifton Lutheran has hosted its pumpkin sale with proceeds going to a Navajo reservation in New Mexico. By the end of this year’s sale, the church will have sent more than $100,000 to the community. “We’ve been seeing a lot more people interested in Indigenous
Marblehead Police have responded to eight drug overdoses so far this year, two of them fatal. “Of the fatalities, one we believed to be opiates and the other cocaine,” Police Chief Dennis King told the Current. In 2022, police also responded to eight overdoses, including one fatality. All but two of those overdoses were Marblehead residents, King said, and ranged in age. Roughly two-thirds of victims were male, one-third female. According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, opioid-related incidents among Marblehead residents jumped from nine in 2021 to 17 in 2022. The Board of Health is now providing free Narcan and fentanyl test strips. Fentanyl is a deadly opioid that is sometimes added to marijuana and other drugs. The test strips can identify whether a drug is laced with fentanyl. Narcan is an opioid overdose treatment. “There are people in Marblehead suffering from opiate addiction and other SUDs [Substance Abuse Disorders],” King said. “It affects everyone, regardless of economic status, race, age or gender. Programs like Narcan and fentanyl strip distribution can aid those in a crisis. It’s part of a total,
PUMPKINS, P. A8 OVERDOSES, P. A3
SCHOOL CHOICE
What should happen to the Coffin School property? BY LEIGH BLANDER Town and school leaders are debating the fate of the Coffin School property on Turner Road. Built in 1948, Coffin closed in 2021, and neighborhood students moved to the new Brown School on Baldwin Road. Initial discussions were that Coffin would be sold to a developer to create affordable housing. The School Committee has the authority to determine if the Coffin property no longer has any educational use and should
BLACK CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW
be handed over to the town. Until that happens, the town cannot move forward with plans to sell it. In recent meetings, School Committee Chair Sarah Fox spoke about demolishing the school and possibly holding onto the property. “Whether we sell it for affordable housing or retain it for possible school use purposes, whatever happens, that building is a problem,” COFFIN, P. A5
The Coffin School closed in 2021.
CURRENT PHOTO / LEIGH BLANDER