Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

The Chilton County Board of Education will hold second interviews for the position of chief school financial officer. The board narrowed its choices to two and will interview these two candidates again on Monday.

A meeting has been scheduled for 1 p.m. on Thursday for the board to make a final decision.

Board president Lori Patterson said the goal was to have someone hired by the end of next week.

Patterson said the initial interviews went well.

“I think they went extremely well. We had some good candidates,” board member Joe Mims said.

Of the 12 applicants, four were interviewed. None of the local applicants met the minimum requirements for the position.

During the interviews, board members took turns asking questions. Each interview lasted approximately 30 minutes.

Patterson said communication skills, in addition to the job description requirements, were important because the chief school financial officer has to work with several different people.

“That [communication skills] was something that was very important to me and the rest of the board,” Patterson said.

Mims said he wanted to make sure the candidate had a good knowledge of what maintenance of effort was and how to monitor it.

Maintenance of effort is the term used to describe the state requirement that a school system increase its local funding for special education by at least one dollar every year. Concerns were presented by financial consultant Kim McPherson at a recent meeting that the school system had increased funding by $396,271 and would have to maintain and exceed this level of funding.