NATCHEZ &045; One of two consultants guiding the Natchez-Adams School Board’s search for a superintendent said candidate interviews could start as soon as next month.

Former Assistant Superintendent Mary Kate Garvin has served as the district’s interim leader since Dr. Carl Davis left in June and accepted a job with a school district in the Atlanta area.

Caston and fellow consultant Cass Pennington, both of Delta State University, will accept applications postmarked by today’s date, allowing the applications another week to arrive by mail.

Applications should be submitted to the school board 10 days to two weeks after that, with interviews to be scheduled as soon as possible after that, Caston said Thursday.

&uot;I’ll call (district officials) tomorrow and set a time&uot; to meet with the board to review applications, Caston said. &uot;Hopefully, within February we can get some people to come for interviews.&uot;

First, upon reviewing the applications, the board will let Caston and Pennington know which candidates they want to interview.

The consultants will then contact the candidates to get permission to release their names to the media &uot;so that the community will know who’s up for the position,&uot; Caston said.

Also, part of each interview will be open to the media and a &uot;representative group&uot; of citizens so board members can see how each candidate interacts with members of the community, he said.

Caston said Thursday that he did not have current estimates of how many applications his office had received so far.

&uot;Several people have called in the last few days asking about the position, but my concern is more with quality, not quantity,&uot; Caston said.

School Board member Johnny Dale said that, for him, the important thing is that the board take enough time to conduct a thorough search.

&uot;We just want to thoroughly go over everything we’ve got,&uot; Dale said.

School Board President Dr. Norris Edney could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.