by Nick Castele
The Ohio Board of Education plans to interview eight candidates for the job as state schools superintendent.
The board hired a search firm to collect applications and evaluate the 44 candidates who applied.
The five highest-ranked candidates to be interviewed next month include Shonda Hardman, a former top official in the Houston school district, and Thomas Lasley, who served for years as the dean of the school of education at the University of Dayton.
Tina Thomas-Manning is the superintendent of the Reynoldsburg schools, outside of Columbus. Paolo DeMaria was an official with the Ohio Board of Regents and, before that, an advisor to Gov. Bob Taft. Robert Sommers is the CEO of Carpe Diem, a charter school company.
The board also voted to include a few other applicants in the list of finalists to be interviewed. Michael Sentance is a consultant and former Massachusetts secretary of education. David Estrop was schools superintendent in Springfield, Ohio—and before that, in Lakewood. And Thomas Jandris is dean of the College of Graduate and Innovative Programs at Concordia University Chicago.
The salary for the job is posted at $210,000 to $250,000. Interviews are scheduled for May 9 through 11.
