A familiar face is one two finalists for the interim superintendent position, the screening committee announced Thursday.
“The Interim Superintendent Screening Committee, after reviewing several applications and performing interviews, has selected Dr. Theresa McGuinness and Dr. Jannell D. Pearson-Campbell as finalists to present to the Marblehead School Committee,” School Committee Chair Sarah Fox wrote in a press release Thursday morning.
McGuinness served as the Village School principal from 2012 to 2016 and was a finalist the last time Marblehead hired a permanent superintendent. The 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 Marblehead, 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 most recently 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.
The School Committee has scheduled public interviews with both candidates for Monday, Oct. 2, at 5 p.m. at the Marblehead High School Library.
This is a developing story. Stay with the Current for new details.
Editor Leigh Blander is an experienced TV, radio and print journalist who has written hundreds of stories for local newspapers, including the Marblehead Reporter.
