10 seek school top job

The field is narrowed to 10 candidates as the search continues for the new Douglas County school superintendent.

Huge, Hager and Associates, the firm hired by the school district to help in the superintendent search, will discuss the applications of 10 finalists today at 5:30 p.m. in the Douglas High School media center.

The firm and school board members will determine who will continue on to interviews in the next step of the selection process.

Among the candidates are principals, superintendents and several Nevadans:

n Johnson Lane resident Ronald E. Beck is grants and special projects manager for the Carson City School District.

He served on the Douglas County School Board from June until November when he resigned his position to apply for school superintendent.

n Eddie K. Bonine, director of student services for the Washoe County School District;

n Debra Ann Bradley, former superintendent of the Fontana Unified School District in Fontana, Calif.;

n Lisa Fontana, director of curriculum and instruction for Douglas County School District;

n David Roy Freeman, superintendent of the Placerville Union School District in Placerville, Calif.;

n Carol Jean Lark, assistant superintendent of the southeast region of the Clark County School District.

n Richard McClements, superintendent of Shonto Preparatory School in Shonto, Ariz.

n Allen Lawrence Steen, superintendent of the Hinton Community School in Hinton, Iowa.

Also included in the list of candidates are Mark Coleman and Rodney Roy Kessler.

The top applicants resulting from today's meeting will be interviewed Jan. 17-19. The goal is to have a candidate for the board's approval at the Feb. 14 school board meeting.

A closed session for Friday's Douglas County School Board meeting to winnow down the number of candidates for school superintendent has been canceled.

Superintendent John Soderman said Wednesday that a quorum of the school board will meet at 3:30 p.m. as noticed, debate a modified agenda and then adjourn until 5:30 p.m.

"We'll put a sign on the door that says we're not meeting," Soderman said.

Soderman said he didn't want to bring down Lake Tahoe representatives if the board wasn't going to meet.

The two-hour closed session was scheduled to discuss the 10 candidates, but an issue with the open meeting law led the board to choose to cancel the session.



What: School superintendent search

Where: Douglas High School library, Highway 88, Minden

When: 3:30 p.m. today