South Kitsap School District’s board of directors will interview Bev Cheney, Michelle Reid and Steve Rowley to serve as its interim superintendent for the upcoming school year.

Interviews begin at 3 p.m. Monday at the district office and are open to the public. SKSD board president Kathryn Simpson said they could go into executive session later to “review their credentials.”

Simpson said she expects the board to select an interim superintendent Monday night. That person then would start Aug. 15.

Cheney served as the district’s superintendent from 2001-08. She retired a year earlier than initially anticipated when SKSD’s board named Dave LaRose, who is leaving to become the superintendent of California’s Culver City Unified School District superintendent, as her successor. She was Bremerton School District’s interim superintendent at the end of the 2008-09 school year and serves on Olympic College’s board of trustees.

“We are entering into a very busy year with contract negotiations and a levy,” school board member Patty Henderson said. “We need someone to hit the ground running. We felt she potentially could be a great fit for us.”

The board, which narrowed down the interim superintendent candidate field Monday from nine candidates, also will interview Reid, who has been Port Angeles School District’s assistant superintendent since 2004.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in natural science and chemistry from the University of Puget Sound and her master’s and doctorate in education leadership and education from the University of Washington. Reid also was a finalist to become the superintendent of the Olympia School District, where Bill Lahmann, who guided SKSD from 1995 to 2001, retired.

“I think she is highly qualified and comes from a district that is similar in a lot of ways to us,” school board member Greg Wall said.

Former Bainbridge School District superintendent Steve Rowley will interview, as well. Rowley, who earned his doctorate in administration and policy analysis from Stanford University, was BSD’s superintendent from 1997 to 2002. He then worked in California’s Fremont Union High School District in a similar capacity from 2002-06 and was executive director of the Highline School District from 2009-11. Rowley has worked as a consultant since September.

Board members agreed earlier this month that the interim superintendent will have an opportunity to apply for the superintendent opening, which is expected to be filled by April with a July 1 start date, if that person is interested.