A slate of candidates was presented to the Board on Tuesday, May 3 at its regular meeting.

The candidates are:

Joel Boyd, Superinten-dent of Schools, Santa Fe Public Schools (New Mexico).

Jesus Jara, Deputy Superintendent, Orange County Public Schools (Forida).

Shawn Joseph, Deputy Superintendent for Teaching and Learning, Prince George’s County Public Schools (Maryland).

Brad Leon, Chief of Strategy and Innova-tion, Shelby County Public Schools (Tennessee).

H. Allen Smith, Chief of Schools, Oakland Unified School District (California).

Kenneth Zeff Interim Superintendent, Fulton County Schools (Georgia)

The Metro Board of Education will now hold a first round of interviews with a new slate of candidates. From those interviews, the board is expected to narrow the field to a few finalists before a second round of interviews the following week.

The second round of interviews includes a far reaching plan for community engagement and input into the search process, including multiple opportunities and methods to give comment and ask questions to board members and the final candidates.

The board will host a series of community forums with the finalist candidates in mid-May. The forums will each feature a different candidate for an hour-long interview with parents, teachers and members of the community. The forums will be hosted at Metro middle and high schools around Nashville.

During the forums, a panel of representatives will ask questions of the finalists directly, and audience members will submit questions for use by the moderator. Citizens can also submit questions online to The Tennessean. A selection of these questions will be drawn at random each night for candidates to answer. Those who attend the forums will be asked to provide feedback for the Board at the end of each forum.