JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Individual Duval County School board members have been on the job Sunday, meeting with the search firm hired to find the new Superintendent of Duval County Schools.
Dr. Patricia Willis has been the interim superintendent since Nikolai Vitti left to take a superintendent job in Detroit.
News4Jax has learned that there are 26 candidates on the list to replace Vitti and only one is from Jacksonville. She is a teacher at Palm Avenue Exceptional Center.
The question facing the school board is who is best suited to run a huge school district with more than 100,000 students.
Scott Shine is a school board member who's researching a lengthy list of candidates, including a superintendent in Oklahoma City and the chief of schools in Nashville.
"My standard is we need someone on the same level as Dr. Vitti. I don’t know if we’re going to find that. I think it’s important also that we bring someone in after the next election cycle," Shine said.
Shine and the rest of the board spent Sunday afternoon holding individual meetings with the search firm they hired to help find the best person for the job.
Shine points out that these are individual meetings due to the fact that the Florida Sunshine Law prohibits the board from meeting together privately.
"I know there are folks that have concerns about transparency. And I know it’s important. And on my part I’m going to disclose everything that’s discussed in these meetings," Shine said.
The goal is to narrow down the list and then the question will be whether the board moves quickly and hires the new superintendent before school board elections this Summer.
The board will meet tomorrow to review resumes and narrow down the pool of candidates.
Below is a list of the 26 candidates being considered to be the next superintendent of Duval County schools.
1. Wayne Alexander
2. Perez Carlos
3. Michael Dunsmore
4.John Ewald
5.James Fell
6.Diania Greene
7. Frederick Heid
8. Virginia Jewell
9. Linda Johnson-McClinton
10. Brenda Jordan
11. Teresa Lance
12. Aurora Lora
13. Malinda Mansfield
14. Edwin Martinez del Rio
15. Krish Mohip
16. Sito Narcisse
17. Raul Nuques
18. Richard O'Malley
19. Harrison Peters
20. Erick Pruitt
21. Rick Robins
22. Rebecca Salato
23. Ellen Solek
24. Arthur Stellar
25. Kevin Walston
26. Darrell Williams