MEXICO – It’s back to square one for the Region 9 School of Applied Technology board.

Board Chairman Norman Clanton said Monday afternoon that the board’s top candidate for the director’s position has declined the job.

“We were disappointed,” said Clanton. “We thought he would be an asset to Region 9.”

A special meeting of the board and the Screening Committee has been called for 7 p.m. today at the River Road school to decide the next step in the hiring process.

The board had unanimously voted on May 15 to hire Walter Ridlon, the tech prep director for Central Maine Community College in Auburn. Ridlon lives in Lewiston and had said that he didn’t plan to move if he took the position. At that time, he said he wanted a few days to think the position over before making a final decision.

The board will decide on Tuesday whether to take another look at the pool of the five remaining candidates who have been interviewed, re-advertise, or take some other action.

Director David Driscoll, who has served for two and a half years, leaves for retirement at the end of June.

He leaves at a time when a $4.9 million building and renovation project is about to begin. Plans call for a construction start in late summer, with completion a year later.