CANYON CITY — Grant School Board members will interview four superintendent candidates on Thursday, Feb. 10, in a closed-door session with an eye to trimming the field to two finalists.

The board is pursuing a confidential search process to find a successor to Bret Uptmor, who will be retiring at the end of the school year in June.

Oregon law permits executive sessions — where the public is barred, and reporters are instructed not to report on the proceedings — in certain specific situations. In its meeting announcement, the school board cited ORS 192.660 (2)(a): “to consider the employment of an employee who works on behalf of the district.”

To select a new superintendent, the board must advertise to fill the open position, establish hiring procedures and allow public input, according to the Attorney General’s Public Records and Meetings Manual.

The board appears to have met those standards.

During a meeting last Wednesday, Feb. 2, the board discussed the names of the candidates in executive session, but it made decisions around the interview process in open session.

Board members have agreed to keep the names of the top-tier candidates they interview confidential.

On Tuesday, Feb. 15, a group of 23 people, selected by lottery to a confidential community stakeholder committee, will meet with the two finalists.

According to a document shared by the board’s administrator, the committee is representative of each school in the district and includes parents, teachers, students, classified employees and one community member.

The community member is a resident in the school district, but is not currently a parent or guardian of a student in the district.

Additionally, there will also be two labor representatives, from the classified and teachers unions. Both were selected by their respective unions.

The Coalition of Oregon School Administrators, which the board hired to recruit candidates for the supervisor position, will take the committee through an orientation to maintain the confidentiality of the candidates.

The committee’s role in the process is to listen and ask questions of the two finalists.

The information from the committee will go to the board and is supposed to help frame the board’s subsequent interviews with the finalists on Feb. 23

Board members are scheduled to meet in executive session on March 1 to discuss the results of those interviews and then vote on their selection in an open session on March 9.

The new superintendent is scheduled to start work on July 1.