Meeting Scheduled to Preserve Local Community Schools

Sunday, October 28th at 4 PM at the Gerry 5, Marblehead resident, Benjamin Crowinshield, is spearheading an effort to preserve the historic Gerry School building as a local school.

Mr. Crowinshield will be gathering signatures at the Gerry 5 on Sunday, October 28th at 4 PM, to call a Special Town Meeting including an article that will “fix and reopen the Gerry School.”

The Gerry School has been the center of controversy since a few years ago when the School Committee advertised the deplorable conditions and severe disrepair of the Gerry School and in particular the run down and irreparable boiler as a reason for an override.

Many citizens believed that they were voting on an override to study and recommend a fix to the broken Gerry School, however the wording of the warrant article allowed for a total review of all schools.

The new plan would demolish the Bell School and eliminate the Gerry and Coffin Schools. In their place Marblehead would build a new $55+ million school at Bell School site.

Proponents who want to keep the historic Gerry School open blame the School Committee and Administration for allowing older schools in general and the Gerry in particular to fall into disrepair.

The School Committee recently voted to transfer the Gerry School Building to the Selectmen; but before the property can be conveyed, the transfer needs to be approved by town meeting in May.

Nevertheless, the Selectmen have begun work on studying what to do with the building and set up a special committee to review and recommend new uses for the Gerry School building.

Mr. Crowinshield believes that preventing the Gerry from becoming anything other than a school will not only fix the historic Gerry School, but also will render the new $55+ million school unnecessary and preserve the Bell and Coffin community schools as well.

The School Committee’s position on the matter is that they are following a Master Plan developed about 25 years ago that called for replacing these schools.

Here is the Meeting Notice:

This Sunday, October 28th at 4 PM, there will be a gathering of all those who want to save the Gerry School at the Gerry 5. I will have signature sheets for the proposed warrant to fix and reopen the Gerry School for people to sign, and look forward to a vigorous discussion of the issue.

The importance of reopening the Gerry School is paramount to maintaining the last few small community schools in Marblehead. If the Gerry remains then the entire mega-school project becomes unnecessary. If the Gerry remains, then the Coffin and Bell will remain, kids will still be able to walk to school and the community environment fostered by the interactions of parents and children every morning and afternoon will remain as well. The economic benefit to Old Town businesses will remain, and the character of our historic town will remain too.

The death of the Gerry is the death of part of what makes our town beautiful. Not the beauty seen by tourists as they explore, but the beauty the beats in the heart of these small children who are losing a fundamentally important part of what makes small town schooling the ideal for healthy social and emotional development.

Please stop by for a minute, or and (sic) hour, put your name down in support, and hopefully have a little fun while you are there. I look forward to seeing you.