Marblehead School Committee Member Vacates Position

MARBLEHEAD, MA — The Marblehead School Committee on Thursday will discuss the opening on the committee because of the recent decision of Brian Ota to vacate his position.

Ota announced at the beginning of a meeting late last week that he was stepping down, effectively immediately, because he was moving out of town.

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"I am vacating — I am not resigning," said Ota, noting that the owner of the house he's lived in died and that the house will be going up for sale after moving through the probate process. "It has been a pleasure working with the School Committee. I have made many friends and associates. It's been great and I will sorely miss this."

Ota then left the meeting, saying that he non-residency in the town was set to begin on Friday.

Ota's vacancy will continue a transformation from the committee that was in place at the beginning of a long stretch of turbulence within the schools that included three superintendents in three years and a two-week teachers' strike last fall.

Three members of the School Committee lost re-election bids over the past two years with one additional member resigning the year before that.

Eight months after a bitter contract negotiation led to one of the longest teachers' strikes in state history, incumbents Sarah Fox and Alison Taylor were defeated in their respective re-election bids, with challengers Kate Schmeckpeper and Henry Gwazda receiving more than four times as many votes as the incumbents.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)