Dr. Michael Reed, superintendent of the Butler County School System, will have a busy week with an interview in Cullman slated for Tuesday night.

He is a finalist for the top educational position in the Cullman City School system.

He was also ranked the second top finalist for the Hartselle City School job.

He is currently in his sixth year as superintendent of the Butler County system.

Last week, a 10-member screening committee in Hartselle completed its task of evaluating and checking references on 14 applications for superintendent of Hartselle City Schools and Reed ranked second on the list.

The Hartselle Enquirer, a sister paper of The Greenville Advocate reported the rankings on Thursday.

The committee ranked the candidates for the job and the results were given to the school board on Monday, according to committee chairman, Ronnie Abercrombie.

Janet Irons Harris, the top-ranked candidate, is a principal in the Huntsville city school system. Candidates from within the Hartselle school system are ranked third and 13th, respectively.

Committee members reviewed 14 application packages and assigned scores based on criteria they had previously adopted, according to Frank Parker, chairman.

Abercrombie said he anticipates that the board will begin the interview phase around the first of December and complete it before the school system’s Christmas break. The interviews are expected to last about two hours and will be limited to one per evening. They will be open to the public.

Butler County School Board president Joanne Peak was contacted for comment on Reed’s job search and she declined to comment at this time.

Reed came to the Butler County System in 1998 after retiring from the Mississippi public school system.

When asked about his upcoming interviews after the Butler County Board of Education meeting Thursday night, he had no comment on the record.

However, he did make a statement to another newspaper about the upcoming interviews.

&uot;I have no family in Alabama and there’s no personal reason why I’m applying for these jobs,&uot; he said. &uot;I have the right, just as anyone else does, to find out about job openings.&uot;

The Cullman and Hartselle positions are the third and fourth time that Reed’s name has been mentioned as a candidate.

In the last year, he has been linked to superintendent searches in both the Sylacauga City School System and the Phenix City School.

He interviewed in Sylacauga but withdrew his name from consideration for Phenix City job.

Reed’s interview is Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in Cullman and it is open to the public as will be his interview in Hartselle.

According to a spokeswoman with the Retirement Systems of Alabama, Reed must be vested in the state’s retirement system by serving no less than 10 years.

Once that benchmark passes, he will be eligible for retirement pay from Alabama.

This is in addition to his retirement pay from his work in Mississippi.

Reed is in his sixth year with the school system.

His base salary is $97,000 per year. The former superintendent in Hartselle base salary was $110,000, while the Cullman job pays over $100,000.

Neither has released the pay scale for their next superintendents.