Marblehead reopens biz manager search

MARBLEHEAD – After three hours behind closed doors at the school administration offices Wednesday morning, School Committee members unanimously voted to reopen the search for a school business manager.The vote was 5-0, according to acting Superintendent of Schools Robert Bellucci, who issued a terse one-sentence statement to that effect shortly after 3 p.m. Wednesday.”We have put this (the search) in the acting superintendent’s hands,” School Committee Chairman Patricia Blackmer said. “He knows what our parameters are.”She added, “He will probably go back to candidates who expressed an interest and let them know we have an opening.”Blackmer said the committee spent the entire meeting discussing the contract Bellucci renegotiated with Swampscott High Principal Brian Salzer and did not look at any other applications. Salzer was recommended for the position by Superintendent of Schools Paul Dulac after Dulac and a screening committee interviewed five finalists.Asked whether Salzer would be one of the candidates looked at, Blackmer said, “That’s up to him.”The decision leaves former School Business Manager George Gearhart as acting business manager, at least until June 30.Dulac, who is on medical leave after a June bypass operation, recommended that Salzer be hired for two years for $125,000 a year. Dulac budgeted $103,000 for the business manager salary in 2010-2011.School Committee members unanimously rejected Dulac’s recommendation Thursday evening and spent 90 minutes in executive session to put together a new contract offer for Salzer. Salzer agreed to renegotiate in an e-mail he sent to Bellucci. He received $124,000 as principal of Swampscott High and is a licensed business manager.This appointment points to a disagreement between two state organizations, the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC) and the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents (MASS), over the role that school committees and school superintendents play in appointing a school business manager. State law says that “The School Committee may award a contract to ? a school business manager,” but each group claims a deciding role in that hiring.In the past the Marblehead School Committee has set parameters for the position and left the hiring process to the superintendent, voting “yes” or “no” on the superintendent’s recommendation. In this case the recommendation was $22,000 over budget.