Jonathan Young, 4th District board member, took it a step further, adding that elected officials should have access to applications for all qualified candidates.

“Well before the committee has concluded its work and narrowed the list to a select few finalists, my colleagues and I should have a very clear understanding of all of the candidates and their credentials and why they are a nay or a yea,” he said. “Partly because we have been very clear in what we want for a superintendent and partly because we along the way between now and December have reviewed the credentials for all of the candidates irrespective of if they made the cut.”

Reached by email after the meeting, Farrell declined to comment.

Farrell has done this before, and the rules were the same. He presided over a panel tasked with finding a replacement for Deborah Jewell-Sherman, who left the division in 2008 for a position at Harvard University.

In the nine years since, two permanent superintendents have come and gone, both departures hastened after a panel of newly elected School Board members opted to negotiate an early exit.