The search for a new Brookhaven School District superintendentis moving forward as board members have narrowed the field ofcandidates and have begun interviews for the position.

From announcing the search for the new school official inOctober to narrowing the original 27 applications down to seven,the school board is well on its way to finding the newsuperintendent.

“There’s a lot of anxiety about it and so forth,” said CarlAycock, school board vice chairman. “But we’re excited about theopportunity of getting a good quality superintendent.”

For the board, filing down the list of applicants was not asdaunting of a task as it might first have seemed.

“We feel good about it,” said Aycock. “It was kind of obviouswhich ones we didn’t want to consider and which ones we did want toconsider.”

Aycock said the board has already interviewed three of theremaining seven applicants and hopes to have interviewed the finalfour by the end of the week. From there, Aycock said the board willplay it by ear.

“We’ll kind of regroup after we interview everyone,” saidAycock. “But we feel like we’ll have a superintendent at leastcommitted by the end of January.”

The school board is in search for a new superintendent andassistant superintendent after Barrett and current AssistantSuperintendent James Tillman announced their retirements inAugust.

Aycock mentioned that of the seven remaining applicants, threeare from inside the school district.

After the final interview is conducted, that does notnecessarily spell the end of the questioning process. Aycock saidif there are two or three standout applicants, then the schoolboard might carry out additional interviews of the promisingcandidates.

Aycock thinks the board is about on schedule in its search,considering they took time to cheer for the Panthers in the statechampionship football quest and will break for the holidayseason.

The appointment of a new assistant superintendent will also beon hold until the decision of a new superintendent is made. Thecandidate for the position of assistant superintendent is chosen bythe superintendent and is then approved or denied by the schoolboard.

While current Superintendent Lea Barrett could recommend anapplicant for assistant superintendent, she is content on waitingfor the superintendent search to play out.

“I’m going to wait until (the school board) makes a decision,”said Barrett. “The when and the who is going to depend on theboard’s selection of superintendent and the time frame.”