 The Bemidji Area School Board approved a slate of five candidates tonight for their open superintendent position. All five are from Minnesota and they are Rochelle Johnson, the current Cass Lake-Bena superintendent, Dr. Tony Kinkel, the current Minnesota State Board of Administrators Executive Director, Mike Colness, the superintendent for East Grand Forks Public Schools, Tim Lutz, the superintendent from Kellier Public Schools, and Jim Wagner, the superintendent from Kimball Public Schools. Superintendent Recruiting Company School Exec Connect used a profile the board created to decide which candidates would move forward in the process. Next week the field will be narrowed down to two or three finalists. Those candidates will each get their own data interviewed with students, teachers, staff, parents, and community members. We've had 24 people that showed an interest in the position. We talked with many others about the position too as well and in the end we have five candidates that we think fit that profile well and that we recommended to the board tonight. The board approved that slate and so those five individuals are set to interview on Saturday. The community interviews for each of the final candidates are open to the public. They start at five in the afternoon each day from Tuesday to Wednesday and possibly Thursday if there are three finalists they'll be held at the Bemidji Area School Building Conference Room. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.