Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Demopolis City School Board held a special called work session on Thursday night to discuss the applications for the superintendent position.

The meeting, which was held at the central office, had one item on the agenda for the discussion of the candidates. After convening the meeting, the board voted to go into executive session to discuss the candidates for the position.

After about an hour of discussion, the board came back to open session and adjourned the meeting.

School board attorney Alexander Braswell said all that occurred was discussion.

“They took no action today,” Braswell said in a text message. “They just had general conversations about the candidates. They’ve got a basic panel they want to interview, but I would not say it’s a finalist list yet.”

The school board’s January meeting was postponed to Monday, Jan. 27, at 5:15 p.m. There is a good chance the board could make a decision on its finalists list at that time.

Once the list of candidates is announced, most districts will have open interviews with the candidates during special called meetings.

The school board is looking to hire a new superintendent after the former superintendent Tony Willis resigned in July to take the same position with Calhoun County Schools. Bobby Hathcock has been serving as the interim superintendent since Aug. 1.

Braswell compiled notebooks for the board members containing the candidates’ applications. At Thursday’s meeting, they reviewed the notebooks.

Braswell said previously that a possible timeline for interviews would be in late January or early February.

Once interviews are completed, the board could enter into negotiations with a candidate for compensation. According to the job posting, the base salary for the Demopolis school superintendent is $150,000 and is negotiable based on “experience and a proven track record.”

The board is looking for a superintendent will move inside the school district and enroll their children, if any are of school age, in the Demopolis school system. A master’s degree was required for the position, but they preferred a person with a doctorate at least three to five years of experience.

Once the board and the candidate come to an agreement, Braswell said the board would like to introduce the new superintendent in mid to late February so that they could begin by a target date of March 1, 2025.