After nearly two hours of discussions behind closed doors Wednesday morning, the Fresno Unified School Board emerged to announce that no decision has been made on naming an interim superintendent.

The board will hold another special meeting at 5 p.m. Friday to continue the discussion.

Board President Susan Wittrup told GV Wire after the meeting ended that the trustees are “making good progress.”

It’s unusual for the trustees to schedule back-to-back special meetings, especially a morning meeting like Wednesday’s. The regular board meetings are usually held in the evening to accommodate public participation.

No members of the public spoke at Wednesday’s meeting.

Seeking Interim Superintendent

The School Board is in the process of determining how to proceed with the search for a new superindent to replace Bob Nelson, who is leaving July 31 for a faculty job at Fresno State.

When the district announced Nelson’s resignation in January, the news release said Deputy Superintendent Misty Her was “anticipated” to be named interim superintendent if the search process was still underway.

Her was reported to have an inside track on replacing Nelson as superintendent when a board majority agreed in March to initially interview only internal candidates.

After public outcry continued to grow over the decision to limit the candidate interviews, the board voted 5-2 at the beginning of the April 3 meeting not to conduct the scheduled interviews. They’ve been discussing since how to proceed with the superintendent’s search since then.