New Wake superintendent could be named next week

He said school board members are still working through the process and hope to announce their new hire by early next week.

With graduations and the end of the school year, it’s been difficult for all the board members to find time to sit down together, Sutton said. The board is scheduled to meet in closed session Thursday to discuss personnel matters, but Sutton emphasized that there will be no announcement Thursday.

The much-anticipated announcement was expected during the board’s regular meeting last week, but members delayed it saying they needed more time to make the appointment. Instead, Cathy Moore was named interim superintendent, taking over for Stephen Gainey.

Gainey has been serving as interim but is leaving to start his new job running Randolph County schools on July 1.

The permanent job to replace former Superintendent Tony Tata, who was fired earlier this year, is down to three finalists who were selected from a field of 23 candidates.

The finalists are Dana Bedden, superintendent of Irving Independent School District outside Dallas; James Merrill, superintendent of Virginia Beach City Public Schools; and Ann Clark, deputy superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

Sutton said last week that none of the candidates had dropped out.