The South Portland Board of Education is set to hire a new superintendent this spring.

If ultimately selected as the new superintendent of schools in South Portland, Ken Kunin said one of his first priorities would be building relationships.

Kunin is now the only one in the running for the superintendent’s post, which became available after Suzanne Godin announced her retirement this past fall. Her last day on the job will be June 30.

The Superintendent Search Committee narrowed the field of candidates from 25 to two earlier this winter, and last week Kunin met with the full school board for a further interview.

The Board of Education meet in executive session on March 12, following a day of meetings between Kunin and community members, city officials and visits to three South Portland schools – Skillin Elementary, Mahoney Middle and the high school.

Kunin is a secondary principal at the American Overseas School of Rome, Italy, but has strong ties to Maine, where he served as the principal at Deering High School and Reiche Community School, both in Portland, and worked as a senior educational policy research consultant at the University of Southern Maine.

Kunin said the American Overseas School of Rome is “an outstanding international school providing a U.S.-style education to the sons and daughters of parents from 50 countries who work for embassies and the United Nations (among others). We like to say that we serve those who serve.”

He’s married to Beth Stickney, the founder and executive director of the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, based in Portland, who is also a native of Maine. The couple has one child, a daughter named Simi, who will start high school in the fall.

“It will be great to get back home to Maine,” Kunin said this week, adding, “I am honored to be under consideration by the school board and look forward to coming to South Portland on March 12 and beginning to build the partnerships that are vital should I be successful in gaining the appointment.”

Richard Matthews, chairman of the South Portland school board, announced Monday that Kunin is the only candidate “moving forward in the process to serve as the city’s next superintendent.”

He said the school board is planning to meet in executive session next week to further “discuss the search process and establish next steps.”

Kunin has a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Brown University and a master’s in special education from Lesley University, along with a certificate of advanced study in educational leadership from the University of Southern Maine.

Overall, Matthews said, Kunin’s professional experience in the field of education spans more than 25 years. His first post was as principal of the Walker Home and School in Needham, Mass., a special education day and residential school.

Kunin is a member of the National Association of Secondary Schools Principals, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, the American Association of School Administrators and the European Council of International Schools.

This week, he said what attracted him to the superintendent’s position in South Portland was the school district’s “long and proud history of success, combined with (a) vision for meeting today’s challenges of educating all students for an ever evolving world.”

Kunin said his educational philosophy is to provide the “instructional and moral leadership to assure bright futures for our students. We are responsible for maintaining an unshakable optimism for the future of our students and our schools.”

He said the most vital job of educators is to have a vision for what “our students (can) become and setting the conditions in the classroom and throughout the district where this is not just possible, but inevitable.

“While I have come to know much about the South Portland schools in the past two months,” he said, “there is much that I still need to know about the schools and the community to gain the knowledge and build the relationships to best be of service.”

A final vote on whether to hire Kunin is expected to take place on April 13, according to Matthews.

This story was updated to add the date of the South Portland Board of Education vote on its new superintendent.

Ken Kunin