Fifty-eight candidates have submitted applications for the position of principal of Suttons Bay High School.

Superintendent Michael Murray this week said he was pleased with both the number and quality of applicants for the post, which will be vacated at the end of the school year by the retiring Sue Rummel.

“Usually, you’re doing well if you have 20 applicants. To have nearly three times that with the breadth and depth of these candidates is amazing,” Murray said.

Letters of interest have been submitted from throughout the country from longtime superintendents and principals as well as less experienced school administrators, and college professors.

An interview committee has been established to evaluate the applicants in the following areas: leadership, vision, experience, communications, curriculum, discipline, special education, school law, school improvement, and extra- and co-curriculars. Committee members will rate applicants in each area with scores ranging from a 1 (”no evidence shown”) to a 5 (“definite strong demonstration”).

The committee includes K-8 Principal Roger Arvo; athletic director and assistant K-8 Principal Cody Inglis; middle school teachers Cindy Crandell, Kathy Herman and Dave Capron; teacher Kelly Halvorsen, representing the Suttons Bay Education Association; parents Tanya Raphael, Mary Woods and Karen Rehyl; and juniors Brendan O’Hara and Allie Freed.

Those who score the highest in committee rankings will be invited to attend interviews with the committee scheduled for April 11 and 13.

“I’d like to get this number under 10,” Murray said.

After interviews are held, committee members will identify which candidates will be invited back for another visit to spend time with high school staff and students, and meet the community during evening sessions where they will answer questions.

“The community will be given comment cards on which to express their opinion on the candidates,” Murray said.

Murray will take the comments into consideration when he determines the candidates he’d like to meet with for individual interviews.

In other staffing business, Murray said he’s been talking with and will send letters to professional staff members who could be “potentially impacted” by layoffs during the 2007-08 school year.

“With retirements and one staff member leaving, we may be able to shuffle people around and not have to lay anyone off entirely,” said Murray, adding that two staff members will be retiring and another returning to her previous position at Traverse City Area Public Schools. “We may be able to retain those teachers we have now, rather than lay them of.”