By Brad Hughes

Don’t look for any names, or even additional insights, in the short term about the candidates still in the running to become Kentucky’s next commissioner of education.

Wednesday afternoon, the Kentucky Board of Education approved an Aug. 15 and 16 schedule to interview an undetermined number of semifinalists for the post. KBE Chairman Roger Marcum said while there are 15 individuals remaining under consideration, how many will actually sit down with he and his fellow state board members remains to be determined.

“The 15 of 44 applicants who have moved forward in the process may or may not be interviewed,” Marcum told eNews in an email interview. “We have requested additional information from the search firm for some of the 15 applicants to help us decide on how many to interview in the first round.”

The Florida-based search firm, Greenwood/Asher & Associates, is surveying the remaining candidates and will report back to Marcum. Then, the two-day interview schedule will be set up for a hotel near the Louisville International Airport.

“After the first round of interviews, we will decide who the search firm should focus on for referencing. The information gathered from referencing will help guide our decision in regard to finalists scheduled for a second interview,” Marcum said.

The state board chairman also addressed the question of when the public might know who is still an active candidate.

“The interviews will not be public. As you know, interviews must occur in closed session to protect confidentiality. For now we will only identify applicants by random number,” Marcum said. “When we identify finalists, the KBE will discuss disclosure of names.”

Holliday is retiring Aug. 31. Also on Wednesday, the state board named Kentucky Department of Education Associate Commissioner and General Counsel Kevin C. Brown to serve as interim commissioner beginning Sept. 1. Marcum has said he hopes that the Brown will have to do both jobs for no more than 30 to 60 days before the new commissioner can be on the job.

The state board is conducting its August meeting today in Frankfort. Public portions of the meeting may be viewed live via the Internet from the KDE website.