Marblehead operates 5 school buildings, from the 24-year-old high school to the 5-year-old Brown Elementary. EBI Consulting did an outside condition report in 2021 that flagged building issues across the district. Items at the operating schools totaled about $1 million; more sat at older buildings that have since been closed. The June 2026 override added $500,000 a year for school-building work starting FY27.
The 5 operating schools
1 High School · 2 Veterans Middle · 3 Village · 4 Glover · 5 Brown
Marblehead High School
Built 2002 · 24 years old
2021 items ($779K total): Tennis Courts $300K, Door Hardware $150K, Hot Water Tanks $100K, plus smaller items for HVAC balancing, gym lights, flooring, security. Roof flagged as "persistent leaks - maintenance issue" without a price.
Done since: card-access elevators and new fire alarm system (2023); fire doors and new entrance doors (2025).
Coming: roof and HVAC replacement. Design contract approved December 2024; three small sections completed during April 2026 vacation; full construction targeted for summer 2026.
Veterans Middle School
Built 2004 · 22 years old
2021 items ($175K total): Security $100K (cameras, no swipe card, no panic), Flooring $75K (library carpets). PAC seats noted as "showing signs of wear" without a price.
Done since: security cameras roughly 95% done by summer 2023 (no later update found); gym wall padding, PAC seat reupholstery, mini-split AC units (2025).
Coming: D-wing repaired after February 2026 contractor-caused flood. MHTV (the local community TV station, which records from the D-wing) hasn't moved back in yet.
Village Elementary
Built 2010 · 16 years old
2021 items ($50K total): Security $50K (panic buttons, limited number of cameras).
2021 items: none priced. The 2021 plan listed no dollar-tagged items for Glover.
Done since: HVAC finalization (summer 2025). The CFO told the School Committee the system covers "only about 20% of the building, 'cause that's all that was designed for" and that it "never really functioned properly from the start when it was built."
Coming: HVAC scope is an open question (see below).
Lucretia and Joseph Brown Elementary
Built 2021 · 5 years old · opened October 2021 after the 2019 $54.8M debt exclusion consolidated three older elementaries
2021 items: not assessed. Brown was brand new at the time of the EBI inspection.
Done since: HVAC failures at Brown and Glover were flagged as "March surprises" in the Asst Supt of Finance's monthly financial update.
Coming: no public condition report on Brown has been published.
Four former school buildings
The four buildings that aren't schools anymore. They aren't really "deferred maintenance" at this point; they're decisions about what to do with empty buildings.
Coffin
Built 1949 (annex 1963) · Closed Oct 2021 2021 items: roof $750K, windows $600K, plumbing $250K, electrical $200K, HVAC $150K
Now in "Adaptive Reuse" — basically, deciding what an old building should become next. Five town departments pitched ideas last fall:
Cemetery Department — burial space
Light Department — battery storage
Recreation & Parks — dog park
Housing Authority — partnership
Community Development — boat storage
The most ambitious outside proposal is from Harborlight Homes: 40 units of affordable housing, $28–32 million, keeping the original building and tearing down the annex. Community meeting #3 was May 20, 2026.
Built early 20th c. · Closed 2021 Current: boiler condemned Nov 2025
Closed before the Brown project, then briefly reopened in 2019–2020 as swing space for kindergarteners while Bell was being closed down. Went dark again when Brown opened.
The Facilities Subcommittee has been talking to Park & Recreation about reusing the building for early education and after-school programs.
Boiler condemned per facilities subcommittee, Nov 5 2025.
Gerry
Built 1906 · Closed Jan 2018 2021 items: roof $750K, exterior brick $250K, boiler $175K, HVAC $150K
The oldest of the elementaries. Students were moved out in January 2018 after a steam pipe leak, then consolidated into Brown when it opened.
Future use is undetermined as of the most recent meeting minutes on record.
Bell (Upper & Lower)
Built 1970 / 1958 · Demolished 2020 Pre-demolition 2021 items: roof $1M, HVAC $200K, boiler $175K (no longer applicable)
Torn down to make room for Brown. The buildings no longer exist.
The 2025–26 minutes still reference a "Bell School Evaluation Process," but it's not clear what's being evaluated. The notes mention services for 18–22-year-old students, so the process may be planning a program for one of the other vacant buildings.
The money for all this comes from two pots. Big projects like the high school roof go in the capital plan. Everything reactive comes out of the operating budget. In the April 9, 2026 financial update, the Assistant Superintendent of Finance flagged HVAC failures at Brown and Glover, bus repairs, and elevator repairs as "March surprises." Voters added a third pot on June 9, 2026. The school side of the override includes a new building capital fund of $500,000 a year, every year, per the Tier 3 breakdown the Assistant Superintendent of Finance presented at the FY27 budget hearing.
The maintenance-tracking software is supposed to land in FY27. It would barcode every asset, schedule routine work, and finally track which jobs have been done.
What does it actually look like to live with the older systems? In April 2024, then-chair Sarah Fox walked the high school during a nor'easter and described what she saw two weeks later at the School Committee meeting:
"As we walked, I was shown classrooms that had leaks and how they were being mitigated. As our walk continued, if teachers noticed us, they would pop out of their classrooms to report new leaks or leaks that were stopped, but it started up again. The custodians were everywhere with buckets and mops trying to keep up with the leaks … what is clear to me is that the continued priority must be made to move forward with a new replacement roof."
Open questions
Glover's HVAC scope. The CFO told the School Committee that Glover's HVAC was "only about 20% of the building, 'cause that's all that was designed for," and that the system "never really functioned properly from the start when it was built." What the original 2014 design called for has not been made public. Was the building designed for only 20% AC coverage from the start, or was the install scoped down from something larger?
The August 31, 2025 building-status document. The Facilities Subcommittee asked for one; eleven subsequent meetings have not mentioned it.
The maintenance-tracking software timing. "Target FY27" but it hasn't been bought yet.
How the $500K/year capital fund gets spent. The override added the line; the district hasn't said where the first round will go.
What the "Bell School Evaluation Process" is evaluating. Bell was torn down in 2020. The notes mention services for 18–22-year-old students. The actual subject of the evaluation isn't clear from the minutes.
Here's how we'll find out
Watch the meetings. The Facilities Subcommittee and the School Committee both meet about monthly. Recent recordings and summaries are searchable.
Ask the Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations or the Director of Facilities about Glover. What was the 2014 HVAC design intent, and what changed between design and install?
Track the FY28 budget. That's when the first $500K capital fund allocation should appear with line items.