AUBURN – Before the Auburn School Committee voted for Tom Morrill as superintendent, no search was done for other candidates.

Last month the committee rejected a search “because we’re very pleased with the job Tom has done. He’s had a lot on his plate,” Chairman David Das said.

On Wednesday, the committee voted unanimously to hire Morrill as superintendent without considering other candidates. Last year, Morrill was assistant superintendent. When Barbara Eretzian retired, Morrill was made interim superintendent.

His job status came up during a committee executive session in December, Das said. Each January the board certifies who is the superintendent for the upcoming year.

“That got us thinking what we should do in terms of Tom Morrill,” Das said. “Board members discussed should he continue as interim superintendent, or should he be made the superintendent,” Das said. “The consensus was to simply take off the interim from Tom’s title and make him superintendent. I’m very pleased with the job Tom has done.”

Morrill’s annual salary is now $103,000, said business manager Jude Cyr. That salary will stay the same, Das said. Morrill’s health package is worth $6,668 a year.

In a community where taxpayer advocates have complained that Auburn schools have too many administrators, no assistant superintendent was hired after Eretzian retired. However Eretzian has stayed on as a consultant, working up to 60 days a year at $45,000.

According to the Department of Education, Auburn has spent more than the state average, and more than Lewiston, on administration.

The latest state data shows in 2005-06 Auburn spent $417.06 per student a year on administration, compared to the state average of $371.66 per student, and Lewiston’s administration spending of $343.65 per student.

Complaining that most Maine districts spend too much on administration, the state’s new education funding formula will allow less for school administration: $204 per student in 2008, according to department spokesman David Connerty-Marin.

Das said he was not overly concerned that Auburn spends more on administration because schools differ on what jobs are counted as administration. “It’s comparing apples to oranges,” he said.

For instance, Auburn’s technology staff is considered administration, but other districts count technology as school staff. Das said he’s “hesitant to take the state figures at face value.”

Auburn will have to cut administration spending, he said, but administrators are needed to do more work. One state goal is by 2010 every high school graduate will be ready for college. That increases the administration workload, Das said.

Morrill, 57, said his goals as superintendent will include student learning and identifying teaching strategies and programs that work well “and move students to the next level.”

With the promise of technology to help students more quickly master learning, higher than ever student performance expectations, and pressure to cut budgets, “these are extraordinary times” Morrill said. “Dollars spent on education are precious dollars,” Morrill said. “We need to allocate those in the best fashion we can and maximum results.”

Morrill expects to present his preliminary budget to the committee in late February or early March.

He has 28 years of administrative experience, serving as assistant superintendent since 2003, as principal at Fairview School in Auburn, the Mallett School in Farmington and the Kingfield Elementary School.

He is married to Leslie Morrill, an assistant principal at Edward Little High School.