I decided to continue the interview process since that is what I came for and I was not really sold on the bush school. I started interviews at 9:00 a.m. and finished up around 5:00 p.m. The second interview was with the system I wanted, it is on the road system.
I completed the interview and they told me it would be a week until they contacted me again. I was a little dejected because I thought the interview went well. There was a twist; instead of one principal opening the system had two. I completed more interviews and went back to my hotel room where I noticed I could see the superintendent of the system I wanted sitting in her room conducting more interviews. I was get getting ready to change and walk around Anchorage when the current principal of the school I wanted called and wanted to meet again, one week sure did pass quickly. I meet with the principal and he gave me some additional information about the second principal position they opened up. He told me I was the number one for the high school principal position and that they would like to do a staff interview by phone next week. I left the interview very positive attitude, but concerned about not having a contract in hand when I left Alaska. I went back to my room, changed, and went to dinner. When I returned from dinner, I had a message on my room phone telling me they wanted to meet again tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m. I must admit I was thinking they had a contract ready for me. I had interviews scheduled for the next day, but they were later.
At 7:30 a.m. Sunday, last day of the job fair, I walked into the job fair area to met with current principal. We sat at a table in the area where all the systems were set up and started talking when another guy walked up. The high school principal introduced us and told us that I was number one for the high school and he was number one for the Cyber School and they wanted to see how we got along because if everything worked out we would be working together. The Superintendent came up and told us we had interviewed back-to-back and if she did not know better she would swear we knew each other. We were both from the south, had been principals of large schools, answered many of the questions the same way, and had similar philosophies. Additionally, she gave us a pay scale and talked to us about other perks of the area then they left us alone to see how we got along. While we were talking, another superintendent came up and talked to us about positions and how he could offer more money, it was very tempting but I decided to wait and do the staff interview the following week. I went to a couple more interviews with positive results and then decided I really did not want to interview anymore, I wanted Delta Greely and I figured it would be worth the wait. I went upstairs, changed into my jeans, and went back downstairs to meet with the person that was up for the other principal position. While I was riding down in the elevator, a superintendent scheduled a follow-up interview and told me not to change that, they had already seen me in my suit. I had a quick lunch and walked around awhile. I stopped back by the Delta Greely booth to pick up some information. While I was at the booth, they gave me a stuffed brown bear to give to my wife and invited me to have dinner with them. I went back to the hotel lobby and meet with the other person to kill some time. I asked him if he had been invited to dinner and when he said no, we went back to the booth and they invited him. We were both feeling very positive about the likelihood of getting a principal position with Delta Greely. I went to my last scheduled interview with a different system and then went to dinner with the Delta Greely staff. After dinner I went to the airport to catch a 1 a.m. flight out. My flight boarded at 12:30 a.m. and departed at right around 1 a.m. fifteen hours later I was back home.