By AARON MUELLER
Niles Daily Star

The Buchanan Community Schools board of education has narrowed its list of candidates for its superintendent position.

Five candidates will be called in for interviews next week for a position that opened after current Superintendent Diana Davis announced she will retire at the end of June.

The first interview will be with Brooke Ballee, an elementary principal with Van Buren Public Schools, and will take place Tuesday at 6 p.m.

Two interviews are slated for Wednesday at the middle school. Storm Lairson, the superintendent of Reese Public Schools in Reese, Mich., will be interviewed first at 6 p.m.

Then the board will interview Phillip Seager, a junior/senior high school principal at Bronson Community Schools, at 7:30 p.m.

The interviews will finish up on Thursday with Thomas Dykstra, a high school principal at Byron Area Schools in Byron, Mich., and Andrea van der Laan, an elementary school principal at Wyoming Public Schools in Wyoming, Mich.

All interviews are open to the public and take place at the middle school.

A second round of interviews will take place the week of July 12 with community visits the week of July 19.

The district has hired Michigan Leadership Institute, a superintendent search firm, to help with the interview and selection process.

Davis, who has served as superintendent at Buchanan for four years and has been in education for 34 years, will retire July 1.