The search for a new Clinton County Schools Superintendent more or less began Monday night with the first official meeting of the Superintendent Search Screening Committee.

The committee first met in conjunction with the school board, then went into closed session after the board meeting was adjourned to begin the application screening process.

Butch Canty, a consultant with the KBA (Kentucky School Boards Association), who is assisting in the superintendent search process, presented board members with the applications that had been presented and gave out other handouts and information about the screening process.

The six-member panel–comprised of Jim Davis, Reda Thurman, Melissa Tallent, Larry Koger, Sheldon Harlan and Ned Davis–is charged with narrowing down the list of applicants from three to five finalists they feel would be best qualified for the position before presenting that list to the Board of Education.

The school board itself will do the actual hiring of a replacement for Superintendent Mickey McFall, who will be retiring June 30 after some 10 years as the schools’ chief.

When the deadline for accepting applications had passed earlier this month, some 15 individuals had applied for the school district’s top job. Of those applicants, 13 were men; two women; nine in-state; six out-of-state (none of which were in contiguous or connecting states with Kentucky); five are current superintendents; eight have district level experience and one each had no district level experience or was not in a school district.

Board Chairman Ned Davis, a member of the screening committee, recommended, and the remaining board members agreed, that out-of-state applicants should not be considered. This basically narrowed down the total field for the screening committee to review and possibly interview, nine applicants.

There was nothing in the breakdown as to how many local, or Clinton residents, had applied for the position. However, board member Kevin Marcum recommended that the screening committee highly consider all local applications, indicating he would like to see the local applicants as finalist for the job.

Five of six screening committee members were present for Monday night’s initial screening process. Another meeting will be held (in closed session) this Thursday at 5 p.m. at the Central Office.

The Screening Committee will again meet with the full board of education on Monday, April 23 and present a final list of three to five applicants–in no ranking area but alphabetically only.

The process will include background checks and interviews by the screening committee of applicants followed by full interviews by the school board for finalists to the position.

Although no exact deadline has been set as to when a new superintendent will be named, initial discussions last month, prior to applications being taken, was to try and have someone in place by late may or early June, giving the successor time to transition into the new position.

Names of the applicants that have applied will be kept confidential and only those finalists who will be interviewed by the board will be made public.