Aiken County School Board members chose four preliminary candidates for the position of superintendent at a special called meeting Tuesday night.
The Board did not identify the four candidates or release their names. According to South Carolina's Freedom of Information Act, the Board would have been required to release the names if they had chosen three finalists.
During a three-hour executive session, the Board selected the four candidates from a list of eight the Special Search Committee, which the Board had charged to review applications for superintendent, had chosen as suitable for the position.
The search committee chose the candidates from a pool of 16 during another closed session meeting Monday and gave the confidential, alphabetized list, unranked in order of the committee's preferences, to Board Chairman Rosemary English in a sealed envelope, which Board members saw for the first time Tuesday. Originally, 17 candidates applied for the position, but one dropped out.
After the meeting, English said the process to choose the four candidates to interview went "really, really well."
"We discussed. We perused. We eliminated, and we came up with a number," she said.
After returning to the open meeting after executive session, the Board unanimously approved amending the superintendent search timeline. The Board will release the new amended timeline at its regular meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Although the timeline has been changed, English said the Board still has tentative plans to name a new superintendent June 30.
"We are still shooting for June 30 to name a new superintendent," English said. "We may have to adjust it. We're not really sure, but right now, we're shooting for that date.
"We're a long way along on that timeline, but on what's coming up there might be some adjustments."
The Board tentatively had scheduled a reception at which the public could meet the finalists as part of the timeline but later chose to cancel it.
Under the original timeline, the Board tentatively had planned to interview finalists on June 27.
English said she is "appreciative" of the Special Search Committee and the Board for their work.
"We had some tremendous candidates, and they worked very hard," she said. "I'm very appreciative of the Board tonight, too, because we really discussed and perused and talked and came to a consensus on a number."
After more than seven years in office, Superintendent Dr. Beth Everitt will retire July 31. Once a new superintendent is chosen, Everitt will work with her successor throughout July.
An Aiken native, Larry Wood is a general assignment reporter. He started at the Aiken Standard in September 2014.