By MATT LINDSEY

PARISHVILLE – The Parishville-Hopkinton Central School Board of Education has interviewed three candidates for the district’s vacant superintendent position.

The Board of Education is working with St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES School Superintendent Tom Burns during the hiring process, which is not an unusual practice.

The BOE interviewed the candidates Tuesday, April 11 at the school.

Burns said they are not releasing the names of the candidates at this point in time.

“The board were determining if a candidate was qualified and would be a good fit for the district,” Burns said. “They will decide who makes it what I like to call ‘the finalist round’,” he said.

PHCS will host any candidates who move on from the BOE interviews for a full day of meetings with staff and meet with stakeholders, he said.

Burns said Tuesday night’s meeting ended late and there has not been discussion yet as to when the next phase of interviewing would take place, but he anticipated around May 15.

The initial goal was and still is to hire someone by May 15, at the school board meeting, but if the BOE needs to wait until the BOE June meeting, Burns says that would be ok as well.

“It depends on the calendar for candidates and the school,” Burns said. “We could stagger their meetings and have them all on the same day or if we have the luxury we will give them a chance to shine on their own day.”

Wayne Walbridge is serving as the interim superintendent until the new hire begins July 1. Walbridge began filling in for Darin P. Saiff, who took a job as assistant superintendent for instruction at St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES in February.

Saiff replaced Burns as PHCS superintendent in Nov. 2009. Prior to that, Saiff was the junior and senior high principal and athletic director at PHCS for about three years. His experience also included principal of Chateaugay Central School and an earth science teacher and athletic director at Norwood-Norfolk Central.