With conjecture about a rumored pregnancy pact at Gloucester High School waning, school officials yesterday reiterated their intention not to speak to any of the students who became pregnant this year about the subject as they begin crafting a new policy to reverse the surge in teen pregnancies before the beginning of next year.

"Our focus is going to be on what the community needs to do and what the schools need to do to avoid this happening again," Superintendent Christopher Farmer said yesterday. "The circumstances of young people who become pregnant are individualized. I think that we are going to be much more interested in what the research says about effective practices."

To make decisions based on the motivations of a small sample of girls might not lead to the best public policy, Farmer said. He added that because of confidentiality laws, the school district only has access to the identities of the girls who have sought help or counsel from school faculty.

The School Committee is expected to hold informational meetings with a battery of experts on teen pregnancy this summer and vote on a new comprehensive policy by the beginning of the next academic year.

On Monday, Farmer and Mayor Carolyn Kirk, responding to reports that students at the high school had made an arrangement to become pregnant together, said their discussions with staff at the high school had not uncovered any evidence that a prearranged plan, or pact, had in fact existed.

They said they had not contacted students about the issue and did not intend to do so.

Three Gloucester High School students who have had children this year said this week they were not part of a pregnancy pact — including two contacted by the Times on Tuesday. The Times is still looking to tell the story of other new mothers at the high school, and has contacted some of the other students, but they have not responded.

School officials first expressed concern about a spike in pregnancies at the high school in March; by June the medical director at the school health clinic said 18 girls had received positive pregnancy tests in the past year.

Officials also indicated that a number of girls were trying to get pregnant; that some celebrated when their pregnancy tests came up positive, and some seemed disappointed when their tests proved negative.

The idea that students had entered into a "pact" to become pregnant was attributed to Principal Joseph Sullivan in a Time magazine article last week. Sullivan has not been available for comment since the article was published or since Farmer and Kirk said on Monday that his "memory had failed him" when asked where he had heard about it. Attempts to reach Sullivan at the high school in person and by phone again yesterday were unsuccessful.

In response to questions about Sullivan's status yesterday, Farmer would say only that Sullivan was still principal of the high school.

For much of the spring, debate surrounding the issue of teen pregnancy in Gloucester focused on the high school health clinic, where staff proposed making confidential access to birth control pills available to students.

In May, Dr. Brian Orr, the clinic's medical director, and Kim Daly, its nurse practitioner, resigned after they said officials from Northeast Health System, the company that runs the clinic and Addison Gilbert Hospital, expressed reluctance to make contraceptives available.

Yesterday Heather Jones, a spokesman for Northeast, said the company had hired a replacement for Orr and was close to filling Daly's position.

Jones said Northeast is "committed to the school-based health center at Gloucester High School," but did not identify the new medical director.

When the School Committee votes on a new policy to limit teen pregnancies, it will have whatever assistance state agencies can offer.

On Tuesday, staffers working for state Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester called Farmer and offered the resources of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to help find the most effective solution for the community.

Yesterday, Heidi Guarino, an education department spokeswoman, said she didn't know exactly what form the assistance might take.

"We want to work with the community to turn this around," Guarino said. "We don't have a plan, just offered our help. There is no expert on this issue."

Patrick Anderson can be reached at panderson@gloucestertimes.com