Topeka ? Divisions between conservatives and moderates on the State Board of Education erupted again Wednesday as the panel tried to restart the process of hiring a new education commissioner to lead Kansas’ public school system.

In and out of closed-door sessions for four hours, the board ended its meeting having made little progress.

“We’re done, and there’s no action,” Chairman Steve Abrams, a conservative Republican from Arkansas City, said as the meeting adjourned.

Abrams said a “bunch” of people had applied for the job, but he would not provide names, a definite number or where they were from.

The board said it would continue deliberating at another closed-door special meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday.

The board is trying to replace Andy Tompkins, who resigned earlier this year after 10 years as Kansas education commissioner, the longest tenure of anyone in that job.

Tompkins has become an associate professor with the School of Education at Kansas University.

In June, the board interviewed four candidates to replace Tompkins but couldn’t decide on a commissioner and restarted the hiring process.

This time, the board hired the National Association of State Boards of Education for approximately $7,000 to advertise for the job, collect applications and help the board put together a short list of nominees.

But the board, which has been divided sharply over issues such as evolution and sex education, found a new battleground.

After a presentation from Mike Hill, deputy director of NASBE, on how the association applied various weights to applicants based on certain skills, conservatives said they didn’t like the system.

Conservative Republican Connie Morris, of St. Francis, said applicants were given too many points for experience in the field of education and too few points for business, civic and political skills.

“Education expertise may have been given five times the weight of anything else. That is not what I was hoping for,” Morris said.

But moderates said the matrix used by NASBE was a sound one.

“I think education experience is the top priority. That is No. 1,” said Janet Waugh, a Democrat from Kansas City.

Sue Gamble, a moderate Republican from Shawnee, said the NASBE process was “completely objective.”

But a motion by John Bacon, a conservative Republican from Olathe, to change NASBE’s system of scoring candidates, was approved by the 6-4 conservative majority.

The board, however, didn’t narrow its list of possible contenders, Abrams said. He also said it was doubtful a new commissioner would be hired by Sept. 23, a deadline the board had set earlier.