The Dawson County Board of Education has taken the next step in finding a replacement for retiring Superintendent Keith Porter.

Porter, who has spent 30 years with the school system, the past five as superintendent, announced his retirement Dec. 9.

The board began searching for his replacement in January, starting with a visit from the Georgia School Boards Association representative Jim Puckett during the January board meeting.

"The process of filling the vacancy is extremely important," he said. "Georgia law does not require this system to do a superintendent search, but what you do legally and what's appropriate ... and what you owe your community and staff is something else."

While no formal action was taken during the meeting, the board decided to use GSBA's services.

"We have posted our superintendent search with the Georgia School Boards Association," said board chairman Roger Slaton. "It will stay posted there for 30 days."

The association will provide logistical services to allow the board to continue functioning without having to use its own time and central office staff as resources.

It would compile a list of potential candidates using criteria and qualifications set by the board and then help whittle it.

"After those 30 days are up, the GSBA will come before the board to survey us in order to get a list of qualities we want from the candidates," Slaton said. "They will then go back to the list, narrow it down from there and finally bring a list of candidates before us."

Slaton believes that, if all goes well, Dawson County should have a new superintendent before spring break, an amount of time he believes should be sufficient for Porter to "show the ropes" before his retirement.