With a looming end of the school year, the school board met last night to discuss how it will go about finding the next person to lead the district now that top candidate Susan Enfield has accepted a position in Burien.

The board eventually decided that it would be best to hire a search firm to assist with the process, just as it did with the superintendent search in 2008 that led to the hiring of former schools supt. Amalia Cudeiro.

Each of the five school board members agreed to meet as soon as possible with representatives from two firms, Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates, which the board used last time, and McPherson & Jacobson.

This will culminate in representatives from each firm giving a 30-minute presentation and 15-minute Q & A at a school board meeting where they would go over their plan to find a new superintendent, including the timeline for the process; the board has not yet decided if it it’s realistic to have a have someone hired by July of this year, or if it would be more realistic to wait until the following year.

Being only months away from summer vacation, many qualified candidates are in final interview stages in other districts.

Board member Christine Chew discussed the possibility of the shorter timeline, but adding a provision to identify a “failed search” if none of the candidates seem like a right fit. In that case, Chew said, the search could be postponed to 2012-2013.

The search firm would additionally need to find a way to present each of the 13 candidates who have already applied in a way that would allow the board to consider and evaluate each one.

After each representative has stated its case, the board would decide on one of the firms.

Board member Chris Marks said she favored  Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates because it knew the community well already, having come into the district and conducted research in 2008, it has chosen diverse candidates for the board to consider in the past, including two top bilingual candidates, and it has a national reach, with representatives all over the country.

Chew, however, said things have changed since then, and that she was interested in “shaking things up,” and hopefully, reaching out to more diverse candidates. Board member Steve McConnell, was also interested in McPherson, saying one of its employee used to live in Bellevue and knows the district well.

While the board had originally been looking at an accelerated process to hire Enfield, which included holding community input sessions and talking with teachers, parents and staff to update its list of desired characteristics in a candidate, board president Paul Mills said that work would still be put to use.

Originally created by Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates in 2008, then updated for the current search, Mills called the desires list of characteristics the “unicorn list.”

“I don’t know if there is any perfection like that out there, a candidate who meets all of those criteria,” Mills said. “With that said, we’re going to do our absolute best.”

Gabrielle Nomura can be reached at 425-453-4270.