With the Bristol Warren Regional School District facing a $2.3 million budget shortfall and the prospect of dozens of layoffs and cuts looming, administrators are turning to two recruiting firms to help them find a chief financial officer, a position that has been vacant for nearly a year and a half.

Members of the school committee's budget subcommittee voted unanimously Monday night to retain the services of The Greysmith Companies of Bristol, and Robert Half Financing and Accounting, to help them find a permanent employee to oversee the district's books. If either of the firms are successful, they will be paid 20 or 25 percent, respectively, of the eventual hire's annual salary, which Superintendent Dr. Jonathan Brice said last week will be in the $100,000 to $110,000 range. There will be no fee paid to either firm if they do not identify a successful candidate.

"I hope this one works," school committee chairwoman Marjorie McBride said Monday.

It has not been easy so far, administrators said.

The district's last finance director, Raquel Pellerin, left in the fall of 2019, several months after Dr. Brice replaced former Superintendent Mario Andrade. Ms. Pellerin landed briefly in Bristol, serving as the town's treasurer, before taking a job as the North Kingstown School Department's financial officer. She did not return an e-mail seeking comment on her departure or her time in Bristol Warren.

After Ms. Pellerin left, the district named administrator Joel Harrington as interim finance officer while the search for a full-time replacement began. Administrators placed ads in the Providence Journal and trade publications, casting what they hoped would be a wide net. Though the district went through several searches and at least three rounds of interviews, Dr. Brice said they had no luck finding someone they thought was right for the position.

"We have a $50 million budget," he said Friday. "While the folks that we have are working really hard and they are certainly doing their best, we recognize the need for there to be a level of expertise that you want in this position. If you look at everybody's resume, you might think (some of the candidates) would be the right fit. But it goes beyond what is merely on that resume. A lot of this job is about experience."

By late 2020, it became clear that the district needed at least one dedicated person to help Mr. Harrington and Dr. Brice pore through the budget while the search continued. In December, budget consultant Mary King was hired to a short-term, $8,000 contract which was renewed last month. And also last month, Dr. Brice hired Diane Brennan, another financial consultant, to a $150 hourly position, augmenting Mr. Harrington's and Ms. King's services.

Both Ms. King and Ms. Brennan will remain on the job until the district is able to find a permanent replacement, Dr. Brice said.

Though the district is facing perhaps the biggest budget crisis in its 31-year history, Dr. Brice said the lack of a financial officer over the past year and a half has not played into that. Instead, he said reductions in state aid and the Covid-19 pandemic are the main reasons for the district's current financial situation. A related factor was the district's decision last year to use $1.1 million of general fund balance dollars to augment the 2020-21 budget, a move he recommended and said helped the district weather the pandemic.

"The budget is impacted by a reduction in state aid and the decision not to use fund balance, as we have emerged from the worst of the pandemic," Dr. Brice said this week. "We knew that there would be programmatic reductions, and layoffs following COVID-19."

The district's frustrations continued as late as Monday evening. Just prior to voting to hire the two recruiting firms, school committee members had expected to vote on hiring a successful candidate for the job. But Ms. McBride started the meeting by removing that item from discussion:

"We're taking (it) off the agenda," she said. "We thought we had someone, and we don't."