This article is part of the Current’s ongoing coverage of Marblehead’s upcoming June 9 election.
With two seats open on the School Committee this June, voters will have two familiar faces and one newcomer to consider as they head to the polls.
Incumbent Melissa Clucas is seeking to retain the seat she was appointed to in September 2025. Former committee member Sarah Fox and newcomer Ann-Marie Jordan are also in the race.
Melissa Clucas
Clucas, a chief financial officer and mother of three, was appointed to the School Committee last fall. She has served on the budget and communications subcommittees.
Clucas said she is “wired for fiscal responsibility.”
“I wanted to deeply understand every cost driver behind our schools, not at a surface level, but well enough to ask the right questions and hold the right conversations,” she said. “Taxpayers deserve that rigor from the people making these decisions.”
She said her three biggest accomplishments since being appointed include working collaboratively to rebuild trust with the community, town leadership and educators; bringing a “data-driven lens” to decision-making and helping residents understand what the numbers mean; and improving communication through regular newsletters and a budget roadmap.
One of her main goals if elected in June is ensuring town leaders follow through on commitments tied to the proposed override… “to be the person who sees through our commitment on the memorandum of understanding that will be signed by the School Committee, Select Board and Finance Committee if the override passes,” she said.
“We actually had a 2019 agreement that laid out exactly this kind of coordination framework — joint planning, monthly financial meetings, shared assumptions. It was never implemented consistently,” she said. “I want to make sure this time it is. I’ve spent my time on the committee building these relationships. I want to shape what real accountability looks like and make sure we follow through on every commitment we make to this community.”
Sarah Fox
Fox is no stranger to School Committee elections. She previously served two, three-year terms on the committee, where she worked on the budget and the Glover and Brown school building subcommittees.
She outlined her goals for another term. “To re-establish transparency and student-focused fiscal responsibility. I worked very hard in previous terms to develop financial practices and reporting that was easily accessible to the public. I understood the weight of using taxpayer money to educate the youth of Marblehead and look forward to having open public deliberations that are student-focused and fiscally responsible.”
Fox was at the center of several School Committee controversies during her time in office, including the removal of a superintendent, a contentious teachers strike and an unpopular flag policy.
She lost her most recent bid for reelection last June, finishing last in the race with less than 10% of the vote. She was also passed over last fall when the Select Board and School Committee selected Clucas to fill an open seat.
Asked what prompted her to run again, Fox pointed to her experience with school finances.
“With six years experience with the Marblehead school budget, I bring a depth of budgeting knowledge that no one else on the board or candidate pool has,” she said.
Fox added, “I also have experience working with school administrators working towards a zero-based budget, another void that will be created with the term ending this year. With the current financial reality of Marblehead, it is imperative that the school department create a zero-based budget and be able to clearly articulate where every dollar is going and how spending affects students.”
Ann-Marie Jordan
Calling herself a “newbie politician,” Jordan said her decision to run comes after decades spent working in education, both in Marblehead and across the North Shore.
Jordan, whose two children graduated from Marblehead High School in 2017 and 2019, recently retired after a long career as a school administrator and educator.
She worked extensively in Gloucester Public Schools from 1999 to 2022, spending her final 12 years there as director of the integrated preschool program.
She has also worked in Marblehead schools, filling long-term and substitute roles, including covering a special education team chair position during a maternity leave. Earlier in her career, she served as an inclusion teacher for students with individualized education plans at the Brown School.
Jordan said her decision to run was rooted in her lifelong commitment to public education.
“It may sound a little bit trite. I’ve always loved working in education — as a classroom teacher, with teachers, with administrators, with school committees in Gloucester,” she said. “I had wonderful experiences working with the Gloucester School Committee on budget and policy development.”
She said she has been encouraged by what she has seen from Marblehead’s current School Committee.
“In Marblehead this past year, I’ve seen some real growth in how the School Committee has really steadied the ship and gone back to the basics of meeting and beefing up their subcommittee work, and I’ve appreciated that,” she said.
Jordan said looming financial challenges make experienced oversight especially important.
“I know that there are tough times potentially coming, even if the override passes whatever tier it’s at,” she said.
She said her professional background gives her the ability to help both fellow committee members and residents better understand complicated school finances and governance.
“As an education nerd, I can go through budgets and minutes … and distill all the information into cogent arguments,” she said.
Jordan, who many people may know through her family’s business, Jordan’s Launch, said she is deeply connected to the town.
“The one thing I want people to know [is that] I love this community, and I have an appreciation in the long term for how MPS effectively educates students, including those students who struggle,” she said. “That is what I can bring to the table… that love for the community, the love for education to help the schools progress.”
