Brenda Blackburn will bring experience dealing with tight school budgets and a commitment to stay in Virginia long-term when she takes the helm of Montgomery County's schools next year.

Montgomery County School Board Chairman Wendell Jones said those are two of the reasons board members chose Blackburn, the associate superintendent of curriculum and instruction in Brevard County, Fla., as the county's new superintendent.

Brevard County's school system, located along Florida's Space Coast, is the 10th-largest district in Florida with 86 schools, eight charter schools, 17 alternative programs and 73,000 students. It's much larger than Montgomery County, which has 20 schools and about 10,000 students.

She will replace Tiffany Anderson and is the division's third superintendent in 12 years. Anderson left the district in June to lead a small charter school in Missouri.

Blackburn should start March 1 and will make $150,000, Jones said. Other details of her contract still need to be finalized, he said.

Blackburn is eligible to draw retirement through Florida's pension system but has been part of its Deferred Retirement Option Program that allows longtime employees to retire while returning to public education and drawing further interest on their retirement.

She said that she plans to remain in Virginia long-term. Blackburn began her teaching career in Danville in the 1970s.

On Tuesday, she said she is pleased with Montgomery County's "dedication to students first."

The school board has yet to make a formal vote to hire Blackburn, but she was offered the job over two other finalists -- Martinsville Superintendent Scott Kizner and Hattiesburg, Miss., Superintendent Annie Wimbish.

The board announced its decision Tuesday morning, after sitting through a three-hour public forum with the three finalists Monday night and then meeting in closed session for several hours afterward.

During the forum, residents questioned each candidate for 45 minutes and then were asked to list the strengths and weaknesses of each. Board members said they took those comments into consideration in their decision.

Over the past eight months, some residents have questioned the board's hiring procedure because they named only the three finalists -- 50 applied and the board narrowed those to seven semifinalists who were interviewed behind closed doors last week.

Jones, however, praised the procedure.

"Our process is to me a model of how all superintendent search processes should be done," he said.

Like Anderson when she arrived in Montgomery County, Blackburn has never held the official title of superintendent.

She has been in her current position since 2003 and is considered the head of academics. Earlier this year, she was passed over for the superintendent's job in Brevard County.

Prior to her position as curriculum leader, she was an area superintendent for Brevard County for nine years, overseeing 23 schools and 17,000 students.

School board member Joe Ivers said that qualifies her to lead Montgomery County's schools.