FRANKLIN—The Franklin City Public School Board will announce the new superintendent on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in city hall’s council chambers.

Board Chair Edna King said she was pleased with the candidate that the board had selected. She also said she believes that Franklin residents would be pleased, as the board drew heavily in setting criteria from the survey that residents had completed earlier this year.

Some of the big issues that King cited were that the new superintendent would consent to live in Franklin; has a history of being a decisive leader; has a strong credentials in curriculum and instruction; and successfully answered some of the other questions, such as about having a process for recruiting and selecting quality staff members, effectively advocating school issues and need and understanding the difference between policy and administration and acting accordingly.

“We did want to find someone who had successful experience in school turnaround,” she said was most important. “That was a focus of our board as well as the state board of education.”

King said that as part of the Memorandum of Understanding, the system was required to get the approval of Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Steven R. Staples.

The MOU asked the board to submit the final three candidates to the superintendent of public instruction.

“We did pursue exactly the avenues that were prescribed for us,” she said. “We chose the candidate based on that process.”

King also added that the person is on the Virginia State Superintendent list.

King said they had 14 applicants and interviewed seven of them.

“The seven we interviewed were outstanding,” she said. “It was a very hard decision.”

The applicants included three current or former superintendents, two assistant or deputy superintendents, five central office administrators and four principals or building level administrators. There were eight men and six women; three came from out of state (California, Colorado and North Carolina), while 11 were from Virginia.

King said the board would plan a reception where the public would be able to meet the new superintendent.