Pond-ering Redd’s Pond’s health, secrets

BY ERIC NJENGA AND JACK CONLEY

We are Eric Njenga and Jack Conley, eighth-graders at the Marblehead Community Charter Public School. For our final project at Charter, our grade did a community service learning project. We chose our project to focus on the environmental health of Redd’s Pond.

We chose this topic because Jack has lived in this town his whole life, and we both consider the pond a part of our community. We know there is a long history to it, and we want to make sure that the pond and the organisms in it remain healthy for future generations. Model boating, fishing and other recreational activities are vital to the history and culture of Marblehead.

To keep the pond in good shape for the future, we decided to take some scientific readings and share them with the community. The first measurement was to determine the pond’s depth using a 14-foot PVC pole. Most sources claimed the pond was 10-11 feet at its deepest point. However, we measured the pond at 13 feet in two spots near the middle buoys.

Second, we skimmed the bottom of the pond to determine what plants might be growing, and if there were any interesting objects. Legend has it that a truck is down there somewhere. We did not find an old truck, but at its deepest point we did find an old model boat. Since it had lead for the keel and was plastic made in the USA, we determined that it was likely from the 60s or 70s. Mr. Standley Goodwin, a neighbor of Redd’s Pond, also guessed the boat was from that era. He also mentioned that the rumor of a truck might have originated from the auto repair shop nearby, which might have dumped some car frames into the pond. There was also a car crash into the wall at one point, so maybe over time, the car crash and the car parts turned into the story of a truck crashing into the pond.

Mr. Goodwin also told us about the pond’s history, how it was used as a fire reservoir in the late 1800s, and then as the town’s water supply until they built wells and pipes from Leggs

Hill Road. Boat races started in the 1890s, with the Marblehead Model Yacht Club forming some years later. In the 1950s, the Fish and Game club stocked the pond with bass, which has mostly replaced the carp and sunfish. Over the years, many modifications have been made to the pond, including a dam by the red houses, moving a barn on pontoons and many retaining walls, giving the pond its current shape.

After we took the measurements, we used a water testing kit in the pond and found out there was a slightly high amount of lead in the water, but nothing at an unsafe level. No harmful bacteria were detected, and the pH levels were normal. We did use an underwater camera on a pole to try and identify the marine life present near the bottom, but the pictures were inconclusive.

After a beautiful day at Redd’s Pond, we learned a lot about its contents and history. Hopefully, people will continue to learn more about the pond’s health and ensure that future generations will be able to enjoy the pond’s reflection just as we have.

Thank you for hearing our story about our community service learning project. We would also like to acknowledge and thank those in the community that helped us:

» Biff Martin - Marblehead Model Yacht Club

» Doug Park - Redd’s Pond

Boathouse

Fred Ferris - Marblehead

Ace Hardware

Standley Goodwin - Redds Pond neighbor

» Luca Ferro - Marblehead High School Senior

» Chris Kennedy and Sean Conley - for supplies and encouragement

The the editor:

I write not as a taxpayer, nor a resident of Marblehead — I understand for some readers, my opinion won’t mean much, so feel free to stop reading. I write as a resident of neighboring Swampscott. I write as a teacher. I write as someone who has witnessed the events of the last few weeks surrounding Dr. John Buckey.

Dr. Buckey’s seemingly random ousting from his superintendent position and the manner in which it was conducted is extremely shocking and concerning to me. The lack of transparency from the School Committee throughout this process, alongside the discovery of Mr. Brian Ota’s failure to notify voters of his open complaint against the superintendent, makes it look much more personal than professional. It is also unacceptable and shocking to hear that a School Committee member found a threatening message outside their home. This is not the Marblehead that I am used to having next door.

The lack of transparency from this School Committee inspires the question: why has Dr. Buckey been forced out? Unfortunately, with the School Committee operating in the manner in which it has decided to, we will not know. This leads minds to wander and come to our own conclusions.

Was Dr. Buckey forced out because of whom he loves? It is not lost on me, as a queer man, that this comes during the same summer that a preschool was forced to close its doors because of its decision to display a pride flag and a public pride mural was desecrated and vandalized.

It also comes on the heels of one School Committee member being elected with a campaign that sought to give parents the ability to “review and if necessary opt out of educational content that does not align with their family values.” This rhetoric could have been taken directly from Governor DeSantis’ “anti-woke” playbook. It is jarring to see this type of language being used by an elected official on the School Committee. Exactly what type of content was this School Committee member referring to?

Putting all of this together, perhaps it is not shocking that Dr. Buckey — a man who is the type of role model I would have deeply appreciated as a teenager coming to grips with my own identity — has been forced out in such an arbitrary and capricious manner. I hope this is not the reason, but the obfuscation of the School Committee leads the public to draw whatever conclusions they may.

I would like to thank the many writers of letters to the editor who shared their perspectives on this issue, including those who came to a different conclusion, for giving me the confidence to add my own. I also appreciate the coverage from Marblehead’s two news sources, the Marblehead Weekly News and the Marblehead Current. I would finally like to add that I am deeply moved that so many of these letters are from residents of the town who are not elected officials, while also expressing my disappointment in our elected officials at both the state and local level who failed to weigh in on this miscarriage of justice.

Again, I am not a resident, nor a taxpayer, but I am a neighbor. Your neighbors are watching. Your children are watching. History is watching.

Tristan Smith Humphrey Street, Swampscott

Time for accountability

To the editor:

Like many of us I’ve watched the saga of another school superintendent being run out of town by the Marblehead School Committee with sadness and anger. Seven superintendents in 15 years and counting!

The Marblehead School Committee continues to be a highly politicized and seemingly dysfunctional body. Nowhere is this more evident than from its recent conduct; from publicly sending contradictory signals on the job performance of the superintendent to a new member who did not respect the voters enough to tell them of his lawsuit against the superintendent (prior to the vote) and to the newly reconstituted committee hiding behind what appears to be its real intentions in “executive session” and “on the advice of counsel.” This behavior is an insult to the taxpayers, children and faculty of our schools. I suggest that next year when the School Committee comes before us to request yet another tax increase to fund the school budget voters take this conduct into account. Ask yourselves how many of your tax dollars have been wasted buying off superintendents over the years along with the costs of hiring executive search firms to source new candidates for the position. This is money that could have been better spent educating our children.

Harlan Strader Risley Road

‘Marbleheaders have long memories’

To the editor:

What has happened to democracy and caring in Marblehead? We have always taught our family and friends about how wonderful our town is, especially because our citizens care about our town and each other. Our School Committee has just negated all our years of promoting Marblehead. Within days of their election,this new School Committee put aside everything a democracy stands for and what they campaigned on — transparency, fiscal responsibility and putting our children’s educational needs in the forefront. Where is the transparency they promoted and promised? The School Committee did