SALISBURY — The search for the next principal of Knox Middle School has been narrowed to four candidates.
A committee made up of school board member Bryce Beard, Knox Parent Teacher Association president Krista Woolly, district administrators and a teacher at the school conducted preliminary interviews for the job Tuesday.
Beard said they interviewed nine people.
“Our job was to make suggestions for the second round of interviews and the people that seem to have the best qualities that we need to be successful,” he said. “There have been recommendations made to the superintendent and we’re checking out their references.
“We had a couple from outside the system and a couple from inside the system that we’re going to interview.”
Beard said he expects Superintendent Dr. Judy Grissom and her team to conduct the second round of interviews sometime next week.
Dr. James Davis, the school’s current principal, submitted his resignation in May, less than a year after taking over the top spot. His last day at the helm is July 31.
Davis, a former district principal fo the year, is leaving to become the leader of Winecoff Elementary School in Cabarrus County.
He requested a transfer from Chian Grove Middle to Knox when the position was vacated by Rodney Burton in April 2011.
Both Beard and Woolly have said they are looking for a principal with staying power.
Davis is the third principal to leave Knox since 2008.
The school faces a number of challenges including a poverty rate of more than 83 percent of its student body and an aging structure.
But the school will enter its second year with a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) focus, which means it will offer more advanced curriculum to students.