You'll have an opportunity soon.

Hired by the Port Aransas Independent School District Board of Trustees, a search firm called Texas School Solutions expects to hold meetings where the public may chime in on the superintendent subject in early October, said Carol Moffett, head of the search firm.

Moffett said she plans to hold a meeting for teachers and other school employees and a separate meeting for members of the general public. In both meetings, folks may talk to her about the qualities they would value most in the next superintendent of PAISD.

Moffett said she will announce specifi c times and dates for the meetings soon. (Watch the South Jetty for news of those announcements.)

PAISD has been without a superintendent since Billy Wiggins resigned from the position in August to take the superintendent position at the Salado Independent School District. Wayne Johnson, former superintendent of the Aransas County Independent School District, has been hired to serve as interim superintendent of PAISD.

After Moffett gathers input from the public at the early-October meetings, she will share that information with trustees.

The school district has set a timeline for hiring a new superintendent after the public meetings, according to PAISD Board of Trustees President Rick Adams (some dates are subject to change, as circumstances warrant):

• Oct. 24 will be the deadline for receiving applications for the position.

• The Board of Trustees will meet in closed session on Saturday, Nov. 1, to hear Moffett's reports and recommendations on the "first tier" of candidates - the most highly qualified ones, Adams said.

• The board expects to meet in closed session the following day - Sunday, Nov. 2 - to whittle the list down to about five top candidates.

• Trustees will conduct interviews with the top candidates in closed sessions Nov. 14 and possibly the following two days if that much time ends up being needed.

• Trustees hope to narrow the list to one or two candidates and have them back for further interviews at closed-session meetings scheduled tentatively for Nov. 17 and also possibly the next day. The board would vote on whom to hire within a day or so after that.

• The goal is to have a new superintendent announced by Nov. 19 and to have the new person in office by the time the second semester starts in early January, Adams said.