MADRAS, OR -- The Jefferson County 509-J School Board was notified, last weekend, that one of two finalists for Superintendent has withdrawn his application for personal reasons. 

Board Vice Chair Laurie Danzuka is still hopeful the district will have a new leader before next fall. "We’re going to go forward with our remaining candidate and finish the process, and do the final interview for him and get all the input from the community." She tells KBND News the board already had a contingency plan in place, in case of such a scenario. "What we decided, when we got it narrowed down to two is, if one dropped out or they both dropped out or we didn’t feel like either one was the best fit for the district, then we would appoint an interim until we could find one that we felt was the best fit to go forward in our district."

The remaining candidate is Ken Parshall; he was hired as principal for the Warm Springs K-8 Academy two years ago. While there's no guarantee Parshall will be chosen, Danzuka says she’s heard very positive feedback from the community, so far. "He interviewed very well. His answers, they were very creative, just kind of like he is. He’s very creative in how he approaches things. He had a game plan already laid out for us, which was very impressive to a lot of people on the team and to myself, as well."