Troy school board members began reviewing the 23 applications for superintendent on Monday and could narrow the field to finalists by next week.

“The goal (Monday night) was to review what we had,” said Dr. Judson Edwards, vice president of Troy City Schools Board of Education. “We’re going to reconvene next Monday night and hopefully come out of that meeting with a list of people we want to interview.”

The board met in a called work session to review the second round of applications for the open superintendent post. In May, a search firm presented the board with five finalist candidates from an initial search process, but board members rejected the finalists and opted to reopen the application process. That period ended at 4 p.m. Friday.

“We’ve said the whole time we ant to have at least three people to interview,” Edwards said. “I hopeful that we’ll have maybe three to six people.”

Edwards said board members spent about two and a half hours reviewing the applications on Monday. If they are able to narrow the field to interview candidates at the June 13 work sessions, their goal is to conduct interviews the week of June 20.

“Of course we feel pressure to act because so many important decisions are coming up for the district,” he said. “But if we can hit these targets, it’s reasonable to think we could have a person named by at least the end of the month.”

Administrators and interim superintendent Jimmy Matthews begin interviews today for the open principal position at Charles Henderson Middle School. Applications are being accepted now for the open principal post at Charles Henderson High School, where Dr. Kathy Murphy announced last week she would resign to take a superintendent’s position with the Monroe County Schools.

With those openings lingering, Edwards said board members feel pressure to move quickly on the superintendent position, which has been open since Dr. Linda Felton Smith announced plans to retire March 1.

“We’re all concerned about timing, but hopefully we will be able to move in an efficient manner and have somebody in this job in July,” Edwards said.