Culver City Observer -

The CCUSD Board of Education has narrowed the national search for a new superintendent to two finalists and will seek additional public's input as it prepares to select a candidate

to replace Supt. Leslie Lockhart, who announced earlier this year that she was retiring from the district after 23 years.

Video interviews of the two finalists – Quoc Tran, the Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services at Franklin-McKinley School District in San Jose; and Alfredo Ortiz, the Local District West Community of Schools Administrator at Los Angeles Unified School District – will soon be posted to the District website, school officials said.

Last week, the Board received a list of the top 11 contenders from the recruiting firm, Ray and Associates, which vetted 47 candidates who submitted applications prior to the July 5 deadline.

Quoc Tran

The board members seemed impressed by the caliber of the candidates screened by the firm. They reviewed each of the candidate's files, which included the application, resume, recorded videos of the candidate responses interview questions and other relevant documents.

At the end of its meeting, the Board selected six candidates to continue in the process. The Board stated it planned to reduce the candidate pool after the first-round interviews and stakeholder interviews slated for this week.

School officials said the stakeholder interview recordings will be posted on the district website for the community to view and to submit an impression survey. This data will be gathered by the search firm and given to the Board to review prior to final interviews next month.