PORTLAND – School districts in Maine are scrambling to fill superintendent vacancies amid a growing shortage of education administrators.

School districts a decade ago could expect 30 or more applicants for a superintendent’s job, but nowadays they’re lucky to get a dozen, said Dale Douglass, executive director of the Maine School Management Association.

Over the past three years, about 30 of the 155 superintendent jobs statewide have opened up annually, Douglass said.

The trend is fueled by a generation of educators who are reaching retirement age and new stresses that make the job less desirable than in the past.

The shortage is driving up salaries and causing some districts to entice superintendents from other school districts in Maine and look beyond the state’s borders for qualified applicants. Some superintendents are being asked to come out of retirement.

The Eliot-South Berwick School Administrative District 35 superintendent search committee came up nearly empty-handed after advertising in major New England daily newspapers, a national education magazine and several local newspapers. The committee reopened the search this month hoping to get more responses.

Helen Cass, head of the school board and a member of the search committee, said it is clear to her that the number of candidates is shrinking in part because of the stresses of the job. In her district, the superintendent oversees a $26 million budget and the education of 2,700 students.

“It’s a mammoth job. It is like being the head of a major corporation,” she said.

Douglass said strained budgets and the pressure on educators to improve learning results have made leadership jobs in education stressful and less appealing.

Many superintendents report they work 60 to 70 hours a week at the office and are never really off the job.

At the same time, the current group of superintendents is aging. Saco Superintendent Michael Lafortune, who left the Bath school district this year, said it is clear any time he gets together with other superintendents that the group is getting older.

“Everyone is close to retirement,” he said.

In the years ahead, there may be more educators like Bob Connors. He retired seven years ago as Lewiston’s school superintendent, but has worked ever since as a fill-in for three other school districts while they found permanent superintendents of their own.

Connors said he intends to continue making himself available to school districts in a tight spot.

“At this point I am fine with it,” he said.