BROOKSVILLE -- A short list of superintendent candidates is now headed for the Hernando County School Board.

A search committee Wednesday night trimmed a list of 15 candidates down to nine. Among them are the two internal hopefuls, current interim superintendent Sonya Jackson and Ken Pritz, a former executive director of school services for the Hernando district who is currently principal at Hernando High.

The other seven candidates:

* Gregory K. Adkins, chief human resources officer for the Lee County School District in Fort Myers;

 * Bryan A. Blavatt, former superintendent of Boone County Schools in Kentucky;

* I.V. Foster, Jr., current superintendent for Prairie Hills School District 144 in Markham, Ill.;

* John R. Phillips, a former executive director of school reform for Atlanta Public Schools;

* Rose Terri McSweeney, current deputy superintendent of Shoreham Wading River Central School District in New York;

* S. Jayne Risen Morgenthal, current superintendent of the Elizabethtown Independent School District in Kentucky;

* Arnold Spadafora, former associate superintendent of Schenectady City Schools in New York.

The School Board had asked the committee comprised of school employees, union representatives and community members to submit a list of five to 10 candidates in no particular order.

The board is slated to meet in a workshop Dec. 8 to decide which of the candidates – if not all – to call in for an interview. The district hopes to hire someone by February and in place by July 1.

--Tony Marrero, Times Staff Writer