ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. — St. Lucie Public Schools is preparing to hire its new superintendent.
Current Superintendent Wayne Gent is scheduled to retire in June.
During a meeting Thursday, school board members made it clear their first choice to replace Gent is current Deputy Superintendent Dr. Jon Prince.
"When you have something good, when a car's running good, you don't want to work on it and mess it up," said Jack Kelly, School Board Member District 2. "I want the car to keep running good. Maybe we can shine it up a little bit. So, I'm disappointed but I will go wherever the board wants."
Kelly made a motion during the meeting Thursday to move forward with hiring Dr. Prince, however, board members ultimately decided to wait to give community members some input in making the decision.
On Feb. 7 at 6 p.m., the district will host a community forum with Dr. Prince.
During the meeting, students and parents will be able to partake in a Q&A session with Dr. Prince.
When the meeting is over, board members will have the option to take a vote to make Dr. Prince the next superintendent.
If that happens, the next step will be for contract negotiations between the district and Dr. Prince to take place.
"My mind is like 90% made up, so yes, I need to listen to the community input, but I don't think it would really change my decision, but at the same time the community has to have the opportunity to speak," said Troy Ingersoll, Vice Chairman.
Board members said during the Thursday meeting that they do not want to conduct an external search for candidates because of the cost of the search.