ADAMS — Six superintendent candidates have been chosen to be interviewed for the Southland Public Schools’ top administrative post.

The Southland Board of Education held a special meeting Tuesday evening to select candidates for interviews. They include: Steve Sallee, Larry Swanson, Chris Thormalla, Therese Sorenson, Tom Hiebert and David Vik.

Sallee is currently a LeRoy-Ostrander Public Schools principal.

The Southland school board will interview the candidates — three Tuesday and three Wednesday, May 6 and 7 — in the first round of interviews in the superintendent’s selection process.

Then, the candidates will be narrowed to two finalists who will be interviewed May 17 and a recommendation for hiring made sometime afterwards.

The district’s current superintendent, Gary Kuphal, has announced his resignation at the end of the current school year. Kuphal will become the superintendent of the Plainview-Elgin-Millville school district this summer.

Kuphal succeeded Larry Tompkins, when he retired after a three-decades-long career in education.

Kuphal served as a combination Southland and LeRoy-Ostrander superintendent during the 2007-08 school year.

Earlier this year, the Southland school board chose to seek a full-time superintendent of its own and sever the sharing agreement with neighboring LeRoy-Ostrander.

That decision came after Kuphal announced he would take the Plainview-Elgin-Millville post.

The LeRoy-Ostrander school district is presently in the process of seeking a part-time superintendent for the 2008-09 school year.

Details of the Southland district’s superintendent selection process are posted on the district’s Web site.

AUSTIN DAILY HERALD