LEWISTON — None of the six applicants for Lewiston School superintendent is an in-house candidate, and only one is from Maine, according to the consultants’ report to the School Committee.

Committee members are scheduled to interview candidates Monday, Wednesday and Thursday in closed-door meetings.

Superintendent Bill Webster, who was hired in 2010, announced last summer he is retiring at the end of June.

The first round of interviews will be done via Skype or Facetime, because most candidates are from other states, Chairman Mark Cayer said, adding he was surprised there are no in-house applicants.

Over the past five years, most of Lewiston’s school principals have come from within the district, working as teachers or administrators before being promoted.

Two years ago, when Webster took a three-month leave, he named two principals as “superintendent interns” to give them experience at that level.

One was then-Lewiston High School Principal Shawn Chabot, who has since been named assistant superintendent. The other was Jake Langlais, who two years ago was Lewiston Middle School principal. Langlais is now principal of Lewiston High School.

Chabot, who has been assistant superintendent for less than two years, said he did not apply for to become superintendent.

The six candidates named in the report:

• Portia Bonner, superintendent of the East Haven Public Schools in Connecticut.

• Angela Atkinson Duina, who until Oct. 18 was principal of faculty instruction at Baxter Academy, a charter school in Portland, and before that school improvement coordinator for Portland Public Schools.

• Todd Finn, principal of Mills River Union High School in Rutland, Vermont, who has experience decreasing dropout rates and boosting student attendance.

• Christina Otuwa, assistant superintendent for instructional leadership at Bridgeport Public Schools in Connecticut, and a former teacher and administrator in Atlanta and Pittsburgh.

• Tracy Racicot, a former art teacher and principal of Burlington High School and Technical Center in Vermont.

• Andrew Reinking, who manages 13 school districts as assistant regional superintendent for the Madison County Regional Office of Education in Illinois.

Cayer said he is pleased with the superintendent search done by BWP & Associates, a search firm based in Illinois.

“They’ve just done a good job thus far producing quality candidates for us to interview,” Cayer said. “We’re really impressed with the process so far, especially the community engagement they conducted.”

Cayer added he has heard many positive reactions from people in Lewiston. As part of the search process, several organizations have been asked for feedback on what qualities or characteristics people seek in the city’s next superintendent.

In employment advertisements, BWP & Associates has listed the annual salary as between $135,000 to $145,000.

Sixteen people applied for the job, including five women. The applicants are from Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Vermont, Virginia and Texas.  

Four of the applicants have experience working in school districts that have between 2,000 and 4,000 students, compared to Lewiston’s student population of 5,570. Five worked in districts with between 500 to 1,000 students.

Five of the applicants have experience as superintendents. Others have experience as assistant or deputy superintendents, principals or teachers.

Cayer said he expects the final rounds of interviews to be completed in several weeks, with the selection announced in early February.

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