The Crenshaw County Board of Education is still narrowing down the field for potential candidates for the principal positions at Luverne and Highland Home.

“To date, we have probably 15 or so viable candidates,” Superintendent Randy Wilkes said at last week’s meeting. “As we interview, I think we’ll probably limit it to those who have past administrative experience.”

Wilkes said the interviews would be conducted early in May, and that recommendations might be made by the May Board meeting.

“We’ve had people from north Alabama, south Alabama, west Alabama, Tennessee, and a lot of local interest,” said Wilkes, who added that the candidate pool is a diverse one.

In other business, Wilkes reported that the system is seeing a slight decrease in enrollment, while the number of free and reduced lunches are slightly increasing.

“My theory is that it’s taken us a bit longer to get into the recession, and it will take us a bit longer to get out,” he said.

He said that the decrease seems to be from people leaving the county after possibly moving for work reasons.

“This is why we need to work with local businesses,” Wilkes said. “If people move out of the county for work reasons, we lose kids from the schools.”

The board also accepted Glencoe/McGraw-Hill as their preference for textbooks, though no approval for textbook purchases was made.