A York County school superintendent and former Scarborough school administrator was hired Thursday as Yarmouth’s new superintendent.

Andrew R. Dolloff, who is the superintendent of schools for Regional School Unit 21, will begin his new job on July 1, replacing interim superintendent William J. Michaud.

The 48-year-old Gorham resident, who was hired by RSU 21 in 2009, signed a three-year-contract with Yarmouth that will pay him a yearly salary of $127,500.

He will become Yarmouth’s fourth school superintendent.

Dolloff said his decision to leave Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Arundel was based on professional goals as well as personal reasons.

He said he was attracted to Yarmouth because its school system has traditionally been ranked as one of the highest performing school districts in Maine – U.S. News and World Report ranked Yarmouth High School as the second best high school in Maine in 2013, just ahead of Falmouth which was ranked third by the magazine.

Dolloff said personal reasons also played into his decision to leave a larger school district for a smaller one. He said his family has ties to Yarmouth – his grandparents attended Yarmouth schools.

“The big draw for me was the town and the schools, which have been synonymous with excellence,” Dolloff said Thursday night in a telephone interview.

Members of the Yarmouth School Committee met Thursday night and voted 7-0 to hire Dolloff, according to chairman David Ray.

Ray said it was Yarmouth’s reputation for excellence in its schools that took the district more than two years to find a permanent superintendent.

The search began during the middle of the 2011-12 school year after then-superintendent Judy Paolucci left to take a superintendency job in Massachusetts.

Ronald T. Barker agreed to serve as the interim superintendent, but the district could not find a candidate that suited the district’s profile.

“We were not going to just settle on anyone. We have a very high performing school district and a reputation to maintain,” Ray said.

A 13-member search committee composed of teachers, administrators, School Committee members, community members and Yarmouth town manager Nat Tupper conducted a nationwide search.

Ray said that the second round of the search attracted more than 20 candidates. That field was shrunk to two finalists.

“Andrew Dolloff clearly came out on top,” Ray said. “He is a really high quality candidate.”

Dolloff started his career teaching chemistry and biology at Lewiston High School and Dirigo High School.

He went on to become an assistant principal at Wiscasset High School, the director of student activities and athletics for Scarborough schools, the assistant principal for Scarborough High School, and served as the assistant superintendent in Scarborough from 2006 to 2009.

Former Maine Commissioner of Education, J. Duke Albanese, recommended that Yarmouth hire Dolloff.

“I consider Andrew to be one of Maine’s finest school superintendents. He has a skill mix for the times: He is an educational leader who puts teaching and learning, and its effectiveness, at the head of the class, while demonstrating an astute managerial capacity for oversight of the operations of a school district,” Albanese wrote.

Ray said Yarmouth became a single public school district in the 1960s. Its list of superintendents is a short one: Frank Harrison, Kenneth Murphy, Paolucci and now Dolloff.

Dolloff said he plans to submit his letter of resignation to the RSU 21 School Board when it meets at 7 p.m. Monday at Kennebunk Elementary School.

More than 1,400 students attend Yarmouth schools. The school district’s annual operating budget is around $21 million, according to Ray.

Staff Writer Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at:

dhoey@pressherald.com