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Ten applicants for superintendent of Tucson's largest school district will be recommended to the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board on Thursday.

TUSD's Superintendent Search Advisory Committee, an appointed group of 22 community members and TUSD staffers, examined 21 applications for the job over the weekend. None of the applicants' names has been made public.

There was no group discussion, said John Gordon, director of leadership development for the Arizona School Boards Association, which is conducting the search for TUSD. Gordon oversaw the process.

The committee rated applicants on experience, background and training, and made recommendations with a simple yes or no, he said. Comments were recorded on evaluation sheets, Gordon said, and all the materials will be presented to the board, along with the top 10 candidates, during a non-public board meeting Thursday.

About half the candidates come from an education background, he said. There were internal candidates as well as applicants from outside the district, outside Tucson and even outside the state. Applicant identities are confidential until finalists are named by the governing board.

"This person could have been from the education world, the business world or the military," Gordon said. "We have all that. I am pleased with the diversity of the candidates."

While the board will focus on the 10 recommended applicants, members can consider all 21. The next step will be board interviews with prospective candidates. Once finalists are chosen, the names will be announced, and the interview process will include community input, Gordon said. There is no specific number of finalists requested by the board, he said.

"We're just looking for the best candidates based on applications," he said.

"We are on track to appoint somebody in the month of March," said board President Alex Rodriguez, who met with the search committee Saturday.

Rodriguez said he was pleased to learn last week TUSD had so many applicants for Superintendent Roger Pfeuffer's seat. Pfeuffer has said he will retire from TUSD with the conclusion of his contract, which lasts until June 30.

"We've got 21 applicants," Rodriguez said. "This is despite a national trend of decline in superintendent search pools."

A brochure for prospective applicants advertised a salary of $185,000 to $230,000 and a benefits package of up to $50,000.

The brochure also highlighted some of the district's recent accomplishments, including its kindergarten- and first-grade-class-size reduction and its $235 million bond passed in 2004, as well as attempts to be removed from its decades-old federal desegregation case.

However, it was revealed last week that small class sizes likely will grow from a 1-to-18 student-teacher ratio to 1-to-24 in light of a projected budget deficit for the 2008-'09 school year. District officials also are hoping to move forward with a 2008 budget-override vote.

TUSD also has begun public discussion of possible school closures, an issue likely to be inherited by the next superintendent.

While Pfeuffer has said he wants to hand over the district on solid ground and with a balanced budget, there are some other major issues hanging over the district, such as the implementation of state-mandated four-hour English classes for English-language learners, a federal and state investigation of TUSD's technology department and possible corrective action under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

The search for a new superintendent is the third this decade for Tucson's largest school district.

In 2000, Texas educator and former Tucson Unified School District teacher and administrator Stan Paz was hired.

Four years later, Paz resigned, and Roger Pfeuffer, then a retired TUSD administrator, was hired as interim superintendent.

In 2005, the governing board dropped the idea of a $50,000 national search for a superintendent, and Pfeuffer's contract was extended until the end of the 2007-'08 school year.