SPRINGFIELD - Two potential candidates have already applied for the school superintendent's job in Springfield.

The search committee to find a replacement for Dr. Rose Rooth met for the first time Thursday. Rooth, board members said, was leaving for personal reasons. A new superintendent is hoped to be in place by July 1.

According to an ad that appeared on the SchoolSpring Web site three weeks ago, the job pays between $100,000 and $110,000 per year. The list of skills and abilities listed in the ad is extensive. The ad says the board is looking for a , "proven visionary, with a "working knowledge of state and local agencies, budget experience and high ethical standards."

The latter quality has been in the news recently, as the Windsor Southwest Supervisory Union next door to Springfield had to reopen its search recently after finding one of its finalists listed a doctorate from a Louisiana diploma mill that was not discovered until late in the process.

"I didn't help with that search," said Winton Goodrich, associate director of the Vermont School Boards Association, which assists local boards with superintendent searches and is helping with Springfield's.

Goodrich said after a school board decides on a superintendent who can be hired, he or she must be vetted by the state Commissioner of Education before actually being awarded the job.

"The plug on that search got pulled before the Commissioner of Education conducted a licensure review," Goodrich said. "The commissioner is the fail-safe."

One of the things Goodrich recommended was to run a standard Internet on potential candidates.

"You'd be surprised at the kinds of things you find out on Google," he said.

Goodrich said there were 11 openings for school superintendents in Vermont, and there were 14 openings at this time last year.

"There are not a lot of candidates jumping up and down to be superintendents," Goodrich told the committee. "Your position has a lot of appeal because there's only one school board."

Until the School Board is ready to name candidates as finalists, Goodrich said, confidentiality rules the day.

"Confidentiality is critically important," he said. "If a school board member in another town walks up to one of your candidates and says, 'Hey, I hear you're looking for another job,' it's not a pretty picture."

"By law, there's a lot you can't be told," he said. "You won't be able to do a lot of preliminary checking due to the confidentiality rules."

Contact Stephen Seitz at stephen.seitz@rutlandherald.com.