AUBURN – Come July, there could be one less school administrator in Auburn.

The Auburn School Committee agreed this week to consider Assistant Superintendent Thomas Morrill as a candidate for interim superintendent.

The committee will vote Feb. 28 on whether to hire Morrill as a temporary replacement for Superintendent Barbara Eretzian, who will retire on June 30.

There are no other candidates for the temporary job, but if the committee hires a permanent replacement, it will do a job search, School Committee Chairman David Das said Thursday.

If the board approves Morrill as interim superintendent, the position would be open-ended, with no contract, Das said. The school department would, at least temporarily, go without an assistant superintendent, he said.

Studies have shown that an assistant superintendent is needed in Auburn, but existing staff would pick up the work, Das said. Eretzian would be available as a consultant, he said.

With several plans to consolidate school administration being considered by the Maine Legislature, it doesn’t make sense to hire a permanent replacement for Eretzian, Das said.

“There’s uncertainly out there,” he said, referring to Gov. John Baldacci’s proposal to consolidate school administrators across Maine and competing proposals to cut school administrative costs.

Baldacci’s proposal would eliminate more than 80 percent of the superintendents, from 152 to 26.

If none of the school district consolidation plans pass, Das said Auburn and Lewiston could discuss having one superintendent for both cities. That idea “is out there,” he said. However, the two school boards are not in any formal talks about a Lewiston-Auburn merger.

If approved by the committee, Morrill would assume the Auburn superintendent duties on July 1.

He has served as assistant superintendent in Auburn since 2003. Before that, he was principal of Fairview Elementary School in Auburn. He has also served as principal of the K-3 Mallett School in Farmington, and the K-8 Kingfield Elementary School. Morrill has 28 years of administrative experience.