By SANDY McGEE

CUMBERLAND — The School Committee will renew talks about extending the superintendent’s contract at its next meeting tomorrow night at Cumberland High School.

This past April, the board’s Personnel Sub-Committee tabled such talks about extending Superintendent of Schools Donna A. Morelle’s contract due to the her then uncompleted evaluation.
Six months later, with the superintendent’s evaluation now carried out, the School Committee has once again decided to discuss her contract, according to School Committee member Robert C. Thibodeau.
“There has been a movement to extend contracts in the district for stability and for continuity,” Thibodeau said. “She (Morelle) passed all her objectives. That was very successful. We (the School Committee) are now going to talk about it (the contract). We will see what the majority decides.”
The School Committee will first discuss Morelle’s contract during the board’s executive session, which will start at 5:30 p.m. at the high school.
A regular meeting will convene at 7:30 p.m. An item on the agenda for the regularly scheduled meeting reads “discussion and/or vote to approve superintendent’s contract.”
If approved, Morelle’s contract would be extended for two more years, expiring in 2011, according to Thibodeau. Her current contract is set to expire in June 2009.
“In my opinion, she’s a very good superintendent,” said Thibodeau. “Another three years is good for the district. We are moving forward as a district.”
Thibodeau, a seventh-term School Committee veteran who is running for re-election, said that Morelle’s accomplishments have moved the district in the right direction. The accomplishments, according to Thibodeau, include the completion of CHS 2010 two years ahead of schedule and the district’s budgetary surpluses.
“Her accomplishments are many,” said Thibodeau. “We have a good administrator in place. The last two years of the budget were both surpluses.”
Some members of the School Committee disagree with the move to extend the contract less than a month before the election. Five of the seven School Committee members are running for re-election.
“This is not for this committee,” said Earl T. Wood, who is running unopposed. “It’s for the new committee. We know there will be at least two new people on the committee. I think they have the right to choose who they work with. They are handcuffing the new committee coming in.”
“She’s still under contract for another year,” said School Committee member Donald J. Costa, who is running for re-election. “She has her good points and she has her faults, just like any other administrator. My issue is that she has a contract until 2009. We just finalized her extension just three or four months ago. Why didn’t they discuss it back then?”
Morelle has served as superintendent of schools since July 2005, when she and former School Committee Chairman Paul Neves signed a three-year contract.
Her contract was extended for one year in a closed-door vote, which was taken at an executive session meeting on Oct. 26, 2006, by the then out-going School Committee.
The current board voted 4-3 during a public meeting on Feb. 14 to approve the contract and salary. Opposing the contract’s approval were School Committee members Karen MacBeth, Costa and Wood.