2008: Year of Change and Challenge
By Ray Lamont as head of the school, and even
Editor
“Change” was a magic word across
the nation in 2008. So was “chal-
lenge,” as the U.S. economic plunge
produced a ripple effect that has left
virtually no one untouched in some
way,
Those words also captured the
legacy of 2008 in Gloucester and
across the towns of Cape Ann — and
they are themes carried out through-
out the year’s top stories as chosen
by the staff at the Gloucester Daily
Times.
The No. 1 news story as voted by
the Times and gloucestertimes.com
was the one that pushed Gloucester
into the national and global media
spotlight this summer — and one
that still poses a variety of chal-
lenges for Gloucester officials and
residents alike.
The spike in pregnancies within
Gloucester High School from a
norm of four to a total of 18 during
the past school year, the assertion
by then-Principal Joseph Sullivan
that many of the pregnancies were
intentional — first reported in the
Times in March — and then a June
19 Time magazine story indicating
that at least some of the students
had formed a “pact” to get pregnant,
not only thrust Gloucester into an
unwanted side of the global spotlight
for several days.
It also put the city front and center
in a renewed regional and national
debate on teen pregnancy, it trig-
gered the resignations of medical
personnel within the school’s clinic,
it led to Sullivan’s exit after 10 years
on the scene in terms of Cape Ann
touched off a brief and failed effort to
recall Mayor Carolyn Kirk. It also led
to both a new policy regarding the
distribution of contraceptives within
the high school, and the affirmation
of the school’s controversial day-care
center within the school.
For the rest of the top 10 stories of
the year, see the numbered list lower
on this Web page.
Other stories of note
The top 10 stories, of course, were
hardly the only items of note that
have had an impact in Gloucester
and Cape Ann life over the past 12
months.
Hollywood found its way back
to Cape Ann more than once, with
some of the industry’s biggest
names paying a visit. This year’s
guests included Sandra Bullock and
Ryan Reynolds, who were here to
film, “The Proposal”; Mel Gibson,
who was filming his “Edge of Dark-
ness”; and Wade Williams who’s
starring in “Hatteras Hotel,” which
was filming in Rockport this month.
The most dramatic of those
ventures, for a variety of reasons,
proved to be “The Proposal,” which
converted downtown Rockport into
a movie version of Sitka, Alaska,
for more than a week — and briefly
thrust Gloucester and Cape Ann into
the global media spotlight when a
vehicle carrying Bullock and her hus-
band, TV reality star Jesse James,
was hit by a drunk driver the night of
April 19 on East Main Street.
Similarly, Gloucester’s Mayor
Kirk was hardly the only new face
transit administration post in
leadership.
Rockport welcomed a new superin-
tendent of schools in Dr, Susan King,
who took the reins this summer.
King, who signed a three-year con-
tract formerly served as an adminis-
trator in the Triton Regional School
District, returned to the North Shore
after a stint as superintendent in
Montvale, N.J.
She succeeded Rosemary DiTullio
— who became one of several com-
munity leaders besides GHS Princi-
pal Sullivan and state Rep. Verga to
bow out in 2008.
The highest-profile departure
came through a change at the top
of Northeast Health System, the
parent company of Addison Gilbert
Hospital and Beverly Hospital.
After votes of no-confidence earlier
in the year by both the doctors and
nursing units, Laverty officially
stepped down in November amid
another Northeast controversy,
the discovery of stolen artworks
— including at least one piece by a
Rockport painter that once hung in
Addison Gilbert Hospital — at the
Groveland home of a former North-
east employee.
Others who stepped aside this
past year did so under far better
circumstances.
Nancy Schwoyer, a founder of the
Wellspring House organization,
stepped aside as its executive direc-
tor after 25 years at the helm; Kay
Nordstrom announced last week
she was leaving after 20 years as
head of the Cape Ann Transporta-
tion Operating Co. to take a federal
Washington; and Michael Costello,
announced in September his year-
end retirement as executive direc-
tor of the Cape Ann Chamber of
Commerce — a position he has held
for the last 30 years.
In his brief speech at a late-
November testimonial dinner,
Costello emphasized the need to
look forward, not back. Speaking to
nearly 300 business and community
leaders at Cruiseport Gloucester,
Costello encouraged all to continue
working for economic growth and
Cape Ann’s future. And as the
pages of the calendar turn this
week, many of the stories from 2008
continue to move forward as well.
If 2008 was a year of challenges
and change, Gloucester, Rockport,
Manchester and Essex residents
can continue to look for more of the
same in 2009. A plan for the future
of Gloucester Harbor is very much
a work in progress, as will be the
construction and other developments
around Gloucester Crossing and its
environs.
Manchester Essex officials are
hoping that the opening of their
new school will be coming in Sep-
tember — already making that one
of the potential top stories of 2009.
And, lest we forget, Gloucester will
be holding another city election in
November, after Cape Ann’s towns
carry out those exercises in the
Spring.
Stay tuned.
¢ ¢ ¢
Ray Lamont can be reached at rlam-
ont@gloucestertimes.com