PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend School Board plans to narrow the field of superintendent candidates to three finalists Saturday night.

The board has scheduled an executive session at 5 p.m. after a day of interviewing each of the six semifinalists who were selected Monday from an applicant pool of 26.

The new superintendent will fill the position that will be vacated at the end of this school year by Superintendent Tom Opstad, who announced in March that he will lead the Aberdeen School District next school year after five years in Port Townsend.

“When we hired Tom Opstad [in 2005], we had several months to make that decision,” said Beth Young, whose seven-year tenure on the board makes her the longest-serving of the present board members.

She is the only member who has been involved in a previous superintendent selection.

“This time we had to do it more quickly. We were under the gun.”

Interviews on Saturday

A sequential set of interviews will begin at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at the Blue Heron Middle School, 3939 San Juan Ave.

A group of parents, teachers and students have been invited to participate. The public can watch the interviews, but will not necessarily be allowed to ask questions or provide feedback at that time.

After the interviews, the board plans to hold an executive session and emerge at 7 p.m. with three finalists, who will be interviewed during the week of May 17.

The candidates, with the times they will be interviewed on Saturday, are:

• Mellody Matthes, executive director of human resources, Oak Harbor School District, 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.

• Thomas Churchill, superintendent, Hood Canal School District, Shelton, 11:10 a.m. to 12:10 p.m.

• William Evans, former superintendent, Lopez Island School District, 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

• Robert Corley, principal, Montesano Junior/Senior High School, and former superintendent at Evergreen Public Schools, Flagler County Public Schools and Fife Public Schools, 1:40 p.m. to 2:40 p.m.

• Jeff Sweeney, superintendent, Fillmore Unified School District, Fillmore, Calif., 2:50 p.m. to 3:50 p.m.

• Robert Clark, superintendent, Cascade School District, Leavenworth, 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.

“They did their homework,” said consultant John Fotheringham of Northwest Leadership Associates of Mount Vernon, who was hired to facilitate the selection process, after the board chose semifinalists on Monday.

“They compared the challenges that the district faced with what each candidate had to offer.”

All but one from area

All but one of the candidates are from the Puget Sound area. Sweeney is from from California.

All but one are men with superintendent experience. Matthes is a woman who has worked in human resources at a school district.

Three of the six — Clark, Corley and Matthes — have doctorates.

Gender and location were not factors in the selection, board member Anne Burkhart said.

Instead, it was most important for the candidate to have superintendent or central office experience.

Only three or four of the 26 applicants were women, Burkhart said.

None of the applicants has met the board personally, and photographs were not part of the application.

“All of them look good on paper,” Young said. “I look forward to meeting them personally on Saturday.”

Opstad’s last day is June 30. The new hire is scheduled to begin on July 1.

Young said the vetting process will include talking to board members at the candidates’ current schools, but this may not occur until the next stage.

At that time, separate board members will be assigned particular districts to contact.

Finalist names will be posted Saturday night on the school’s Web site, www.ptschools.org.

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Jefferson County reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.