The final candidates for the school district’s highest office of superintendent is now in the hands of the Clinton County Board of Education, as the Superintendent Screening Committee has formally recommended three finalists to the board.
The Screening Committee and Board of Education held a joint meeting in closed session last Thursday, January 4, when the names were submitted for consideration.
Although the school board is not bound by any recommendation, boards usually accept one of the finalists recommended after doing their own research and interviews of the applicants.
It is unlikely that the Screening Committee will have to have another meeting, of itself or jointly with the board, prior to a superintendent being hired.
The next step in the process will be individual interviews conducted by the school board of each final applicant.
This process could be done all in one day’s time, or over a period of days, depending on each applicants’ schedules and availability.
All candidate interviews with the board will be in closed session due to personnel policies, however, the actual hiring of the new superintendent, as well as the salary of their contract and number of years of the contract, is required to be announced publicly.
As of press time, no information was available on when interviews of finalists may take place.
Originally, the board had hoped a new permanent superintendent could be in place by the first of this year. However, due to the holiday period and scheduling conflicts among Screening Committee members to get the work done on time, the timetable was pushed into January.
Although names of applicants could not be mentioned, it is known that all that applied for the vacancy were in-state, and the three finalists included one male and two female applicants.
A total of eight applicants had originally applied for the seat.
Because of the delay, the board extended the contract of interim superintendent Boyd Randolph through the end of January and he will continue serving through that time as schools chief.
Randolph has been serving as interim since July 1, 2023, following the retirement of former Superintendent Paula Little.
The school board is scheduled to hold its regular monthly meeting next Monday, January 15. However, it isn’t known if any announcement pertaining to the superintendent position will be available by the time of that meeting.