Norwich — The Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday to hire the Marlborough, Mass.-based New England School Development Council for the upcoming superintendent search, with a goal to have a candidate by the end of April.

Current Superintendent Abby Dolliver announced in December that she plans to retire June 30. The school board at the time named itself as the superintendent search committee and met behind closed doors for an hour Tuesday prior to the regular board meeting to hear a presentation by representatives of NESDC on its search proposal.

The firm will post the advertisement for the position, receive applications, screen candidates, do background checks and assist with interviews, board Chairwoman Yvette Jacaruso said. The board has yet to determine how many finalists it would want to interview.

Jacaruso said the cost for the search will be $10,998 and the money will have to be found in the current school budget, which has a current projected deficit of $2 million.

“We have to do this,” Jacaruso said. “There’s no choice."