CAPE ELIZABETH — The school board announced plans Friday to resume its search for a new superintendent after the second and last finalist for the job withdrew from consideration.
Craig King, superintendent of Western Foothills Regional School Unit 10, which serves Rumford and 11 other communities, withdrew his candidacy after he toured the town’s schools on Wednesday and the board met in executive session that night.
The board already has begun the process of hiring an interim superintendent to serve during the 2016-17 school year and will resume its search for a permanent superintendent next winter, Chairwoman Elizabeth Scifres said in an email to the school community.
“It is not unusual for a school department to need more than one cycle of the search process to find a good fit,” Scifres said. “The school board takes its charge of finding the right match for our district very seriously and is committed to hiring the best person it can to lead Cape Elizabeth schools.”
The school board is seeking a replacement for Meredith Nadeau, who has been superintendent for five years and will leave this summer to become superintendent of the elementary and junior-senior high schools in Newmarket, New Hampshire.
The position oversees the education of 1,622 students in three town schools – elementary, middle and high – and a $23.5 million annual budget.
The other finalist for the job was Steven Bailey, superintendent of the Central Lincoln County School System, Alternative Organizational Structure 93, which is based in Damariscotta.
Bailey withdrew from consideration for the Cape Elizabeth post in mid-April.
He decided to stay at AOS 93 after the school board there voted to give him 10 days of compensatory time for the long hours he works, according to the Lincoln County News.
King, who also was one of three finalists for the now-filled superintendent’s job in Scarborough, previously served as principal of Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham and worked as a principal and an assistant principal in Mississippi.
He did not immediately respond to a call for comment.
Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at:
Twitter: KelleyBouchard
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