Hailing from as far away as Alaska and West Virginia, five candidates are moving forward in the Kalispell Public Schools superintendent search.

The school board selected five finalists on Tuesday.

Two candidates, Randy Cline and Thomas Moore, are from Montana.

The other finalists are Deborah Akers of West Virginia, Mark Flatau of Washington state and Glenn Gelbrich of Alaska.

Interviews with the finalists are slated Jan. 13 and 14.

Akers is superintendent of Mercer County Schools in Princeton, W. Va., a position she has held since 1993. Mercer County Schools has an enrollment of 9,550 students and a staff of about 1,185.

Since 2006, Cline has been superintendent at Frenchtown School District near Missoula. The district has an enrollment of 1,200 students and a staff of approximately 166.

Flatau became superintendent of Cle Elum-Roslyn School District in Cle Elum, Wash., in 2005. District enrollment stands at 950 students and the district has a staff of about 116.

Gelbrich, superintendent of Juneau School District in Alaska’s capital city, has been with the district since 2009. The district has 4,980 students enrolled and a staff of roughly 680.

Currently serving as Great Falls Public Schools assistant superintendent, Moore has worked in the district since 2007. The district’s enrollment is 10,500 students. Approximately 574 employees work at the district.

Enrollment in Kalispell Public Schools is currently 5,800 students. The district employs 735 people.

The Kalispell board reviewed nine applicants for the superintendent position. Each trustee on Kalispell’s 11-member board selected five applicants he or she wanted interviewed. Those lists were tallied and the top five candidates were announced during Tuesday’s board meeting.

Trustees each had 10 days to look over application packets and did not go into depth about any particular applicant Tuesday, instead focusing on how they will conduct interviews and the costs associated with flying finalists to Kalispell.

About $20,000 was allocated in the 2013-14 budget for expenses related to the superintendent search, of which $7,500 was used to hire the Montana School Boards Association to assist the district with the search.

Trustees are looking for a successor to Darlene Schottle, who is leaving the Kalispell superintendent position at the end of June 2014.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at [email protected]