Topeka ? An organization that was hired by the State Board of Education to help it hire a new education commissioner has dropped out of the process after conservative board members criticized its performance.

The development, revealed Monday, produced sharp words between conservative and moderate members on the often-divided board.

“I’m not pleased with this procedure,” moderate board member Janet Waugh, a Democrat from Kansas City, Kan., said. “This is the poorest boardsmanship I have ever seen.”

But Board Chairman Steve Abrams, a conservative Republican from Arkansas City, defended the process. “I don’t think it’s a mess,” he said.

After an hourlong closed-door session, board members said they were still reviewing applications for the position of education commissioner, which had been vacated earlier this year by Andy Tompkins, who took a position as an associate professor at Kansas University.

The board planned to meet again today to try to put together a short list of candidates and set up times to interview the individuals.

But before going into its closed-door session Monday, the two sides on the board argued over the role of the National Association of State Boards of Education in the search process.

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The board had hired NASBE for $7,000 to help it advertise for candidates and collect applications.

Last week, NASBE’s deputy director, Mike Hill, met with the board and was told by conservatives that they didn’t like the way he had applied various weights to applicants based on certain skills.

Conservatives, who hold a 6-4 majority on the board, changed the ranking system.

After the meeting, NASBE Executive Director Brenda Lilenthal Welburn sent a letter to the board indicating the organization was getting out of the process.

“As the discussions of the morning demonstrated, the board had little confidence in the process designed by NASBE,” she wrote.

She said NASBE, based in Alexandria, Va., wouldn’t charge the board any money except for Hill’s expenses to travel to Kansas.

In the letter, she apologized “for failing to deliver the level of service to the Kansas Board to which we at NASBE aspire.”

Moderate board members lashed out at the conservatives.

Bill Wagnon, a Democrat from Topeka whose district includes Lawrence, said when the board changed NASBE’s objective process, “it undermined the quality of the search process.”

But conservative board member Ken Willard, a Republican from Hutchinson, said NASBE dropped the ball. “They didn’t serve us well,” he said.

He said he and other board members wanted to see the applications of all those who applied, while NASBE apparently had screened out some.