With new members in place on the Mehlville Board of Education, the board has begun making decisions on its superintendent search process, confirming that it will hire an interim superintendent next year.

Superintendent Eric Knost announced last month that he plans to leave the district at the end of June to be superintendent at the Rockwood School District.

No timeline for a superintendent search has been set or targeted for hiring an interim superintendent, said board President Ron Fedorchak, and the board wants to take its time to find the right person to replace Knost.

“I don’t think anyone thinks we can get a proper search done within the next two months, being involved in negotiations (with the Mehlville National Education Association, or MNEA),” Fedorchak told the Call.

The board conducted interviews in closed session last week for internal candidates who were interested, he added.

Knost told the school board about the Rockwood post in a March 24 closed session, directly following a school board candidates’ forum — a meeting at which the board originally intended to discuss extending Knost’s contract. After he broke the news, the board voted 7-0 to release Knost from his three-year contract, effective June 30. On March 27, the Rockwood Board of Education voted 6-0 to extend a contract to Knost that starts July 1.

Knost will receive a 23-percent raise by going to Rockwood: he makes $190,592 as Mehlville’s superintendent, and he will start at Rockwood making $235,000.

Knost formally took Mehlville’s reins July 1, 2011. He was named superintendent in late 2010, when then-Superintendent Terry Noble announced he would retire, effective June 30, 2011.

The Board of Education voted in the spring of 2006 to offer the superintendent’s post to Noble, then serving as superintendent of the De Soto School District, but the De Soto Board of Education would not release Noble from his contract.

In July 2006, the Mehlville board named Jerry Chambers interim superintendent for the 2006-2007 school year.

The De Soto board voted unanimously Sept. 21, 2006, to accept Noble’s resignation, effective June 30, 2007.

He became Mehlville superintendent on July 1, 2007.