Roanoke's superintendent of schools and school board chairman on Thursday said plans are being implemented to have a full-time principal at William Fleming High School by the start of the next school year.

Doris Ennis, a retired Roanoke teacher, principal and administrator, was named the school's interim leader in August. Ennis opened the new $57 million school, filling in for former Principal Susan Willis, who was placed on leave in June after being implicated in a Standards of Learning testing scandal. The school board fired Willis earlier this month.

"With our recent personnel decision behind us, there now is an opening for a full-time principal at William Fleming," said school board Chairman David Carson.

Superintendent Rita Bishop said she will hold a series of meetings with faculty, students, parents and the public to identify what qualities an ideal candidate should have.

The meetings will begin in December and characteristics gleaned from those sessions will be used to create a job description.

Bishop said the description will be posted by late January or early February, and interviews will begin by late February.

The pool of applicants from there will be honed to two or three potential candidates, and Bishop then will hold public question and answer sessions with each of them.

Filling the vacancy won't likely happen until the end of this school year because "anybody that is really good, is in contract and not available," she said.

Ennis in the meantime will continue to serve as Fleming's administrator on assignment.

"We are extremely fortunate to have someone of the quality of Doris Ennis helping us out on an interim basis at our newest high school," Carson wrote in an e-mail.