With less than two weeks to make a decision, the Liberty County Board of Education has named three finalists for superintendent, according to Chairwoman Lily Baker.
A release from the district on Wednesday said the board hopes to have its new superintendent in place by July 1.

Liberty finalists
Finalists are Dr. Susan E. Compton, Dr. Valya Lee and Dr. M. Ann Levett, and the board has scheduled called meetings to discuss personnel on June 20 and June 25.
The board is required to make available to the public documents that pertain to the three finalists; the board office at 200 Bradwell St. has hard copies available. Assistant Superintendent Jason Rogers redacted personal details and made the forms available Wednesday evening.
Compton currently is superintendent of Russell Independent Schools in Russell, Ky., where she has worked for eight years to oversee 450 employees and a $20 million annual operating budget.
She previously served as assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction in Woodford County Schools and as director of several programs whose years are not specified.
Compton obtained her doctorate of education at the University of Kentucky, with the year not specified on her resume. Her resume indicates she began teaching in 1977 as a music instructor at Eastern Kentucky University.
Lee, a Locust Grove resident who currently works with EduTax, was superintendent of Twiggs County Schools from 2010 to 2012, but she left the $140,000-per-year position due to spousal illness and a four-hour-commute, according to her application.
Previously, Lee worked as assistant superintendent from 2009-10 of Clayton County Schools, which has about 50,000 students. The prior year, she was interim superintendent for the same county.
Her teaching career began in 1992 at South West Atlanta Christian, according to her resume.
Lee obtained her doctorate in educational leadership in 2006 from Argosy University.  
Levett currently is dean of the Middle Georgia State College School of Education, where she has worked since 2009.
Previously, she was executive director of the Yale University Child Study Center in New Haven, Conn., and also worked in Ohio from 1995 through 2000. One of her posts there was as deputy and acting superintendent of Dayton Public Schools.
Levett has ties to the area. She attended both Armstrong State College and Georgia Southern College during the 1970s and 80s and obtained her doctorate in educational administration and supervision in 1992 from the University of Georgia.  

Conley a finalist elsewhere
Liberty County’s interim superintendent, Dr. Cheryl Conley, has been named a finalist in Treutlen County, which has one elementary and one middle/high school and serves about 1,100 students.
“I’m very excited that we will be having a new superintendent hopefully July 1, and I am hopeful that this will be the right person for our system,” Conley said.
“It is true that I am one of two finalists in Treutlen County,” she added. “I am very excited about that opportunity, but if I do not get selected by Treutlen County, I look forward to working with the new superintendent of Liberty County.”
Treutlen County Board of Education Chairman Alvin Heath said Conley is one of two finalists, and the board anticipates a vote in the final week of June.
The 14-day public records window allows them to vote as early as June 24, Heath said, but a date has not been set. The other finalist is Edward D. Morris, principal at East Lawrence High School in East Dublin.  

In other business Tuesday, the BoE also:
• accepted a $8,672 bid from Johnson’s Office Solutions for student-handbook printing.
• approved a $33,639 bid from Ace Flooring — pending reference check and scope verification — for floor covering replacements at Liberty County High School. Another Ace Flooring bid, with the same terms in the amount of $39,546, was accepted for floor work at Midway Middle School.
• Authorized a contract for $23,865 with Miller Painting Company for interior painting at Midway Middle School.
• Accepted an insurance plan that will save an estimated $200,000, according to assistant superintendent Jason Rogers. The plan costs an estimated $1.1 million for automobile liability, physical damage, fidelity bonds, general liability, property, wind/hail, school-board liability and workers’ compensation and utilizes a combination of five insurance providers.
• Adopted an operating budget of $115,832 in revenue and $100,153,899 in expenditures. Rogers said the $15 million in fund balance will buffer the district through times without revenue and ease federal- and state-funding uncertainty.