Topeka ? The Kansas State Board of Education will meet in executive session Friday to start discussing their choice for the next state education commissioner.

The board is expected to vote on its final choice Thursday, Nov. 13, during its regular monthly meeting in Topeka.

Four candidates are in line for the job to succeed former Commissioner Diane DeBacker, who resigned in May to accept a job with the Abu Dhabi Education Council in the United Arab Emirates.

Board members met in executive session Wednesday and Thursday to interview each of the candidates, including interim Commissioner Brad Neuenswander, who has been serving in the post until a permanent commissioner is hired.

Neuenswander has been the agency’s deputy commissioner for the Learning Services Division. In that role, he oversees the state’s curriculum standards and the state assessments that are used each year to measure student progress.

Other candidates for the job include:

• John D. Barge, who is currently the Georgia state superintendent of schools, an elected position in that state. There, he helped implement the Common Core standards for math and English language arts. In 2014, he ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for governor in Georgia, losing to incumbent Gov. Nathan Deal.

• Gillian Chapman, associate superintendent of the Shawnee Mission school district in Johnson County. There she handles curriculum, instruction, staff development, media services and other functions of the district. She also teaches education at the University of St. Mary in Leavenworth.

• Randall D. Watson, superintendent of the McPherson School District. Watson was instrumental in getting the McPherson district named as one of the first two “innovative school districts” in Kansas, a designation allowing the district to be exempt from many state laws and regulations in exchange for adopting measures to help it increase student performance.