The Board of Education has gone through an initial round of interviewing candidates for a new schools superintendent to replace Valerie Goger, who is due to retire at the end of this school year.

ADDED: Susan Carlsson, president of the school board and also head of the board's personnel committee, on Friday afternoon said the board already has interviewed five of the 18 applicants for the position.

The entire Board of Education is scheduled to meet in closed session on Monday to "mull over options" about the final candidates for the new superintendent, she said. "We have been very deliberate in insuring we have the right person to lead the district," Carlsson said on Friday afternoon.

School interviewers have talked to candidates from both inside and outside the district, Goger said on Friday morning in response to a question. The district previously had posted notices that the position is open both inside the school system and in statewide media.

Carlsson said she believes the 18 applications received for the job "are representative of what's out there." She said there are many openings for the job of schools superintendent right now, including some nearby in Somerset County.

"We have no decision yet," Carlsson said publicly at a school board meeting earlier this week. Carlsson then said that the board is still working on the process of finding a new schools superintendent. Goger is scheduled to leave next June 30.

Assistant Superintendent Regina Rudolph, hired by Goger 13 years ago, also has announced she will retire at that time, both administrators announced at a meeting in mid-October. The board is responsible for hiring a superintendent, and the new superintendent then selects a new assistant, Carlsson said.

Before looking outside the school system for replacements, the district was planning to  advertise within its current staff to see if there are any candidates seeking to fill Goger's position as top administrator in a district with more than 5,600 students, Carlsson said at that time.

The district then advertised for the position, offering a salary of $167,500. Potentially — and under new state guidelines — a new superintendent could also earn a bonus of up to 15 percent on top of that base, Carlsson said in October. "That's the maximum possibility...but that's not guaranteed," she said.

Goger is now earning just over $200,000 annually, counting givebacks from her contracted salary of about $217,000.