The South Whidbey School Board won’t stay up late tonight to make a decision on its next superintendent after all.

The board had planned on holding a meeting starting at 10 p.m. Thursday to vote on who to hire as the district’s new chief of schools. Instead, district officials announced this morning that a special meeting and executive session will be held starting at 3 p.m. Friday, May 20.

Sue Terhar, administrative assistant to the superintendent, said the board wanted to have time to review and talk about the input that’s been offered during the search process and the series of community meetings with the three finalists held this week.

The school board is expected to hold a private meeting from 3 to 5 p.m. Friday to talk about the qualifications of the three finalists for the job. The new hire will replace Superintendent Fred McCarthy, who is retiring at the end of June.

Board members will open a session open to the public at 5 p.m. to pick the new superintendent.

The board will meet in the school board room on the primary school campus at 5476 Maxwelton Road.

The candidates are Mellody Matthes, the assistant superintendent for the Tukwila School District; Josephine “Jo” Moccia, the superintendent of the Averill Park Central School District, based in Averill Park, N.Y.; and Jeff Sweeney, superintendent of the Fillmore Unified School District in California.