Swampscott cuts unrelated to two half-time supers

SWAMPSCOTT – In order to combat raised questions and eyebrows, the school committee announced Thursday that the combined salary of two half-time superintendents for the 2013-14 school year will be “very close” to the cost of Superintendent Lynne Celli?s current salary.A statement clarifying the plans for affording the two superintendents came following a meeting last Wednesday where Celli announced she would be moving to a half-time position of Executive Superintendent for Special Projects to focus on the proposed elementary school, the STEM curriculum and to advocate for government-funded Chapter 70 money while another half-time interim superintendent focuses on the day-to-day duties of the job. The announcement came just before a breakdown of budget cuts, including layoffs, that would need to be made in the district for the 2013-14 year.?The draft budget presented last night was prepared before the arrangement for Dr. Celli to move to a new, half-time position was in place, and none of the cuts proposed in that budget are a result of the change in Dr. Celli?s position,” read the release.The release went on to state that the committee intends to hire a “part-time and/or retired former superintendent,” a split relationship that Chairman Larry Beaupre said would be in place from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014 until an appointed search committee finds a permanent superintendent, which Beaupre described as a “much more extensive and scripted search.”Beaupre said Tuesday the plan to have two half-time superintendents came from a discussion between Celli and the committee “as to what made most sense given her needs, and what the district needed and wanted to do.”In terms of Celli?s duties, Beaupre said they were “projects in which she excelled, and we wanted to keep her here involved with them.”Beaupre said he hadn?t heard of a precedent for a split-relationship between two superintendents in Swampscott. “We researched it extensively, and came up with what we thought was going to work best for us,” he added.Beaupre said the search for the interim superintendent began Friday when he reached out to the Massachusetts Association of School Committees for candidate recommendations. “We want to move as quickly as we can,” he said.Kait Taylor can be reached at [email protected].