The North Pike School District Board on Wednesday released the names of finalists vying for the district’s vacant superintendent position.
The board completed its second round of interviews Monday night and narrowed the candidate pool from six to three.
Left in the running are Dennis Penton, Dr. Jay Smith and Dr. Janice Wilson.
Penton is a junior high principal in the Biloxi Public School District and a former superintendent of the Pearl River County School District.
Smith is interim superintendent of the North Pike School District.
Wilson is assistant superintendent of the Biloxi Public School District.
“It’s going to be a tough decision,” board secretary Kevin Matthew said this morning.
The Biloxi Public School District has an A rating from the Mississippi Department of Education, while both the North Pike and Pearl River County School Districts have a B rating.
The school board will meet 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 1, at the Southwest Mississippi Community College Workforce Training Center to hold the final round of interviews for the three candidates. The meeting is open to the public.
Matthew said the board will ask the candidates questions concerning curriculum, finances, the new Common Core standards and “pretty much everything.”
“The North Pike school board urges all concerned citizens parents and teachers to attend,” he said.
The superintendent’s position became vacant after Dr. Ben Cox resigned in December to take a job with the Brookhaven School District.
Matthew said the board plans to have its new superintendent in place by July 1.
The board’s April meeting has been rescheduled to 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 2.
