With a board election just days behind them, officials on the East Lansing Public School Board still don't have time to relax - now they're on the lookout for a new superintendent.

Interviews of six leading candidates began this week, and a new superintendent will be announced by the end of the month.

School board members began considering applications for a new administrator over Memorial Day weekend, when they each took time to review 41 applicants from across the United States, before narrowing the list down to six.

"Though we were all with our families over the holiday, a lot of us were inside during our downtime, working and looking over candidates," School Board President Barbara McMillian said.

The process began in September 2003, when former superintendent Thomas Giblin's contract was terminated by the school board in a 4-3 vote. The board decided Giblin would be out of office by this September.

Though the school board terminated Giblin after the former superintendent left the district with the close of an elementary, construction delays which postponed the start of a school year and a $4.2 million deficit, McMillian said the board isn't feeling very much pressure to choose a perfect candidate.

The board began its search in December, when the district's personnel committee held public hearing to get community input on the qualities the next superintendent should have.

Community involvement was an important aspect of choosing good candidates, School Board Trustee Rima Addiego said.

"From the community forums, we designed our interview questions and also a brochure we distributed to prospective candidates," Addiego said.

The brochure was designed by Thomas Pridgeon, of the Michigan Leadership Institute.

Pridgeon worked with the district and community members, put together focus groups and developed a profile of what qualities the district was looking for.

McMillian said Pridgeon's input helped the board weed through candidates.

"He distributed the brochure and application to people he knew who were interested and those who he thought would be good candidates," McMillian said. "That way none of these candidates were unknowns. We had already talked to many of them."

Pridgeon said district officials completed a very distinct profile of what kind of candidate they were looking for.

"One of the biggest qualities they wanted was someone who could be a long-range planner with knowledge of the data analysis process," he said, adding candidates who were knowledgeable in Michigan finances and who were excellent in public relations were also sought.

The candidate search could raise a little pressure and a few tempers, as Ingham County Board of Commissioners Chairman Mark Grebner said the board is still at odds over Giblin's departure.

Even though the board will do the best it can in choosing the new superintendent, Grebner said after the appointment of that new leader, all the board can really do is cross their fingers and wait.

"You hire almost blind because you just don't know how the new person will react to the district," he said. "You do the best you can in choosing them and then hope it works out. I just want to make sure the next (superintendent) is competent, then I'll do my griping and nitpicking."