MARSHALL — Marshall Public Schools took the first step in the search for a new superintendent on Monday. School board members authorized the district to post the job opening, and the posting will be open until Dec. 29.

The timing of the superintendent search goes along with earlier discussions by the school board. When former superintendent Scott Monson said in May that he was resigning to take another position, board members said it would be easier to recruit applicants in the winter, rather than in the spring. At the time, board members approved Jeremy Williams as interim superintendent, and planned on starting the search for a permanent superintendent this winter.

While there wasn’t any discussion of the superintendent posting during Monday’s school board meeting, the meeting agenda did include a timeline for the search. The plan is for superintendent candidates to be interviewed the week of Jan. 11, with the board making its final approval of a candidate on Jan. 19.

In other news at Monday’s school board meeting, Director of Business Services Dion Caron gave an update on the construction going on at MPS school buildings.

Caron said the wall panels at the new Southview Elementary have been completed, and all the structural steel for the building is installed. The roof deck is about 80% finished, Caron said. Work crews started installing the roof last week.

Over the next two to three weeks, crews will continue to make the building weathertight, pour concrete floors and install steel wall studs. While a lot of the work over the winter will be indoors, in the next couple of weeks there will also be brick installed on part of the new school’s exterior, Caron said.

At Park Side Elementary, expansions are nearing completion. Caron said interior construction work at Park Side is now complete, and the new space has been approved for conditional occupancy. There is still work that needs to be done, like roofing work, which should be complete by Nov. 20.

Caron said about $772,000 remains of the Southview Elementary construction project’s original $986,000 contingency budget so far. For building expansions at Park Side and security updates at MATEC and Marshall High School, there is about $67,000 of the original $151,000 contingency budget left.