CHARLESTON, W.Va. — After an extensive interview process, the Kanawha County Board of Education will make their final decision on who the next school superintendent will be later this week.
The board conducted interviews with the two selected candidates for the position Tuesday before going into executive session.
They now plan to meet again this Thursday at noon to vote on who the next superintendent will be out of the two candidates.

Kanawha County Board of Education President Ric Cavender told media that it has been a lengthy process and it will be a tough decision to make as both candidates are highly-qualified to lead the state’s largest school system.
“It wasn’t an easy process to narrow it down to two candidates, we were able to do that, but it took a while to do last week, and it also took a while to conduct the two interviews for those candidates, because we were able to have really great discussions with two candidates that are very qualified,” Cavender said.
The candidates were chosen out of a pool of five applicants. Cavender said both candidates have experience working in the classroom as well as serving in executive roles.
He said measures began to be taken to find a new school superintendent in the county back in December after current Superintendent Tom Williams announced he would be retiring at the end of this school year.
Cavender said it’s unfortunate to see such a great leader go, but the board is grateful of how helpful Williams has been throughout this transition process.
“Again, we’ve been really fortunate, really lucky to have Dr. Williams’ leadership,” he said. “He has been in the system for over forty years, served the last five as superintendent, and has been an incredible role model and leader to help, to help us as board members as well, to advise us on this process when needed and when asked.”
Cavender said the board conducted a survey prior to the interview process and sent it out to every KCS employee in the district. The employees provided their feedback on who they feel should qualify as superintendent to serve in Kanawha County.
Cavender said this input was extremely helpful to the board as they needed perspectives from more qualified individuals who work in classrooms firsthand.
“Most of the times, we’re not in the education field, some of us are, some of us aren’t, so that’s why it’s so important we do our job to be reaching out to the folks who are in the trenches every single day, I’m really glad we did that and I think because we did that we were able to form our questions in the interview process based on that survey work,” he said.
He said some of the qualifications KCS employees highlighted on the survey as most important for a superintendent to have were experience in the classroom and employee morale.
Cavender said budgeting season is right around the corner and they need the chosen candidate to work closely with Williams to ensure they understand how the county’s budgeting process works.
He said they also need to understand all of the major changes happening within the school system around the county, such as the soon-to-be construction of a new elementary school on the eastern end of the county that will house four current elementary schools that are closing down, as well as the county’s consolidation efforts underway.
“The result of the consolidations that we voted on back in October, that’s something we want to make sure that the new superintendent is working hand-in-hand with the existing superintendent through this transitional process,” said Cavender.
A vote was taken back in October to consolidate two Kanawha County middle schools with two other middle schools within the county to address students enrollment declines.