Less than 24 hours after the three finalists for Montgomery County's open superintendent post arrived for their final interviews Monday, the school board selected Florida resident Brenda Blackburn for the job.

Candidates met with school system staff and elected officials during the afternoon and then answered questions during a public forum later that evening. School board members made their choice -- without an official vote -- during a closed session that lasted from the forum's end to about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday.

The decision capped an eight-month process that began in March when former Superintendent Tiffany Anderson left to take over a charter school in Missouri. But it took only about two weeks for Blackburn to go from a name in a pool of 50 applicants to becoming the division's third superintendent in 12 years.

From the beginning, school board members familiar with the process of hiring a superintendent had said the final days would be swift.

They were right.

This summer, the board began discussing what qualities the next superintendent should have and hired a search firm, Iowa-based Ray and Associates, to conduct the hunt.

The firm accepted applicants through Oct. 27. Seven semifinalists began interviewing Nov. 16. Finalists were chosen two days later, and now Blackburn is expected to arrive March 1 -- just shy of one year since Anderson's announcement.

Blackburn, the associate superintendent for curriculum and instruction for the Brevard County, Fla., schools, will earn a salary of $150,000 in Montgomery County, a $26,500 boost from her current position. She said Wednesday she is "excited for the opportunity" to work in Montgomery County and that she was impressed with the staff's dedication to students.

Details of her contract are still being worked out, and school board Chairman Wendell Jones said he wants them finalized by the year's end.

A formal vote to hire Blackburn could come as soon as Tuesday, the school board's next meeting.

Jones said choosing Blackburn was a tough decision but one that was based, in part, on public input.

"Our late night was purely based on the fact that we wanted to be fresh off of listening to the candidates respond to questions from the public and to see if they picked up on something that we as a board did not pick up on," he said.

All the candidates -- the other two were Martinsville Superintendent Scott Kizner and Hattiesville, Miss., Superintendent Annie Wimbish -- were impressive, but "her approach to budgeting swung some things," Jones said.

Board members also liked her experience and her commitment to remaining in the state, he said.

Blackburn is from North Carolina, and she began her career as a teacher in Danville in the 1970s. During her more than 30 years in education, she has been an area superintendent in charge of 23 schools and 17,000 students in Brevard County and now is a top official in the district. Located along Florida's Space Coast, Brevard County is the 10th largest district in Florida with 86 schools, eight charter schools, 17 alternative programs and 73,000 students. It boasts a 93 percent graduation rate.

During her 45-minute portion of the Monday's forum, Blackburn said that the classroom must be spared when it comes to budget cuts.

"That is the meat and potatoes, so to speak, of what we do," she told the close to 70 people in attendance.

Blackburn pointed to her Florida experience and a "nickel-and-dime" approach to budget management. She said it's important to examine programs that have worked but are no longer needed and shelve them to save money.

The three finalists' meetings with internal employee groups such as the Montgomery County Education Association and the Montgomery Principals Association, as well as the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors, played a big role in the board's decision, Jones said.

Erin Bull, president of the MCEA, which represents teachers and staff, said the association made no formal endorsement of any candidate.

Bull called Blackburn a "thoughtful professional" and said she was impressed with Blackburn's assertion that she worked with neighboring school divisions to talk about ideas.

During the forum, residents and staff marked notecards with questions about everything from leadership style to thoughts on federal achievement legislation to extra curricular activities.

None of the candidates spoke about sweeping changes they'd make within the division, but they did point out the area they thought needed improvement, such as test scores for disabled, black and low-income students.

After the forum, the school board spent more than two hours poring over feedback forms from each of the groups. Jones said the board used no ranking system, but that it did take feedback into consideration.

The board then authorized search firm Ray and Associates to extend an offer.

"We went over every piece of paper that people wrote," said board member Joe Ivers. "It was not something we took lightly."

Ivers had said some constituents told him that the superintendent's search appeared to be "cloak and dagger," but both he and Jones said they were as open as possible and took the public's opinions seriously.

No candidate was clearly a favorite according to the feedback forms, Jones said.

The audience members "were diverse in who wanted what," he said.

However, comment cards collected won't be made public because they are part of a personnel decision, he said.

Ivers said he talked to teachers who supported Wimbish, but he said Blackburn agrees with the district's direction and "the only thing that she can do is make it better."

Blackburn said she wants to improve achievement among black, disabled and low-income students -- the division's trouble areas -- and also to develop relationships with parents and colleges and universities locally.

She also said that she wants to measure the district's achievement outside of the realm of testing.

"With No Child Left Behind, we've gotten a little bit too tied to the report card that sometimes we forget about all the other things that contribute to success," she said, including graduation rate, retention rate and the community's ranking of the division.

In Brevard County, Blackburn has been credited with improving the district's test scores and the number of dual enrollment courses offered.