BRUNSWICK

The search for a new Brunswick High School principal includes a nationwide search led by a nine-member interview committee appointed by the superintendent.

The committee met for the first time Wednesday to discuss the process it will follow.

Its roster: School Board members William Thompson, Corinne Perreault and Michele Joyce; high school staffers Don Glover, Jeff Thompson, Pam Wagner, Jennie Driscoll and Bill Clarke; and citizens Frank Strasburger, James Ford and Jessica Factor.

One community member has yet to be appointed, Brunswick schools Superintendent Paul Perzanoski said.

The team will sift through applications and make a minimum of two and a maximum of four initial recommendations. Semi-finalists will spend in-class time with the students and meet parents and staff before a final recommendation is made.

After the primary vetting process, the committee will recommend one, two or no candidates to Perzanoski. If none are found acceptable, the search process will begin again.

If the superintendent accepts the committee’s recommendation, the candidate must be interviewed and endorsed by the entire school board to be eligible for hire.

Perzanoski said he would post updates on the search on the school district’s website, www.brunswick.k12.me.us.

The search — closely watched in the wake of the abrupt, unexplained resignation of Brunswick High School’s most recent principal — so far has yielded 13 applicants, most from Maine but with several from elsewhere in New England and two from international schools, officials said Wednesday.

The deadline for candidates’ application is Friday at 4:30 p.m.

In other business, the schools budget — which will undergo a public validation vote Aug. 20 — has been finalized due to late changes to the state budget’s approval.

Although Brunswick received $508,000 more than it expected from the state, more than $441,000 of it already has been earmarked to fund the transfer of teacher retirement costs to the town from the state.

The remaining $67,000 will be used to help offset the cost of a facilities master plan, conducted by PDT Architects of Portland. The firm is helping the town to decide whether it should renovate two existing schools or build a single comprehensive new facility.

Polling will be at Brunswick Junior High School on Columbia Avenue, from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m.

If residents fail to ratify the amended budget, the existing budget from Fiscal Year 2013 will remain in effect. However, the town still will receive the extra $508,000 in state funding; the only difference is that it will be added into the schools budget for 2015, Perzanoski said.

Additionally, all of Brunswick’s schools will open Sept. 3 or 4, depending on grade level.

Incoming ninth-graders will have the high school to themselves for an orientation day Sept. 3; for 10th- though 12-graders, the first full day will be Sept. 4, starting at the usual time of 7:40 a.m. and ending at 2:10 p.m.

Coffin Elementary and Harriet Beecher Stowe schools will start at 9 a.m. and 8:50 a.m. respectively, to allow parents with students at both schools to get them to class with parental accompaniment.

jtleonard@timesrecord.com