Board: Schools supt. will choose biz chief

By Dennis Shaughnessey, Lowell Sun

DRACUT — The responsibility for choosing a business administrator to replace Terry Wiggin will fall in the hands of Superintendent of Schools W. Spencer Mullin.

The School Committee unanimously voted last night to relinquish control of advertising and interviewing prospective candidates for the job. It will, however, retain the authority to hire the business administrator, based on Mullin’s recommendation.

“Dr. Mullin is going to have to work with this individual on a daily basis,” said committee member Mike Miles . “They’re in the same building and their offices are right down the hall. It’s in his interest to choose somebody he feels comfortable with. I don’t know the dynamics, but I don’t see how or why that responsibility was ever taken away from the superintendent.”

Chairman Ron Mercier explained that during the tenure of former Superintendent of Schools Elaine Espindle, the district went through six different business managers in six years.

“We were going through (business managers) pretty quickly, and it was something that I didn’t think should be going on,” Mercier said, adding that he was a member of the committee who voted to take control in 2005. “I was totally in favor of the School Committee taking it over.”

It was that committee that hired Wiggin in October 2005. Wiggin tendered his resignation earlier this month to take the business manager’s job in Georgetown. The process to find his replacement is expected to begin quickly.

Mullin will advertise the position and conduct interviews.

Mike McLaughlin was hired in March 1995 and left to take over the Chelsea Housing Authority just one month before completing his fifth year in Dracut.

His successor, Linda Stanley, lasted only two months. She was followed by Leon Cote, who was hired in July 2000 and resigned the following May. Donald Herrick took the job in August 2001 and left in September 2002.

He was replaced by Eugene Bailey, who lasted just over six months. John Griffin held the job from August 2003 to August 2004.

The district was without a business manger for the entire 2004-2005 school year.

“That was completely unacceptable,” Mercier said.