CUMBERLAND — The School Administrative District 51 Board of Directors may have a finalist for the job of superintendent of schools by mid-February, Chairwoman Karen Campbell said Jan. 29 in a letter to the community.

The person hired will replace Robert Hasson, who left the job last November, after 20 years with the Cumberland-North Yarmouth district, to become deputy executive director of the Maine School Management Association.

Sally Loughlin, SAD 51 director of curriculum, assessment, instruction and professional development since 2010, and former assistant superintendent of Topsham-based SAD 75, is serving as interim superintendent through June 30.

The district’s 11-member screening committee spent between almost 30 hours from Jan. 14-23 reviewing applications from candidates, coming up with interview questions, conducting interviews, and determining a group of candidates to present to the full board, Campbell said.

A superintendent could be selected at the School Board’s Feb. 17 meeting, according to a time-line on the msad51.org website.

The committee includes Campbell, Loughlin, North Yarmouth Board of Selectmen Chairman Steve Palmer, Cumberland Town Manager Bill Shane, teachers Joline Arsenault and Wes Franklin, community members Michelle Gilbert, Tim Ferris and Sarah Russell, Mabel I. Wilson School Principal Karen Bubar, and School Board member Martha Leggat.

The School Board was scheduled to begin candidate interviews this week. Campbell said candidates’ names will be kept confidential until the interviews are complete, and a finalist or finalists are selected.

Alex Lear can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 113 or alear@theforecaster.net. Follow him on Twitter: @learics.