Preston — Applications for a new school superintendent are due Feb. 28, and the search consultant hired to sort through the candidates will hold several discussion sessions and individual interviews this week with town officials for input on what the town would like to see in a new school leader.

Current Superintendent John Welch will retire at the end of the 2016-17 school year and the goal is to have a new superintendent start “on or about” July 1, according to the position posting on consultant New England School Development Council’s website. The position salary is listed as “regionally competitive.”

NESDEC officials, led by former Griswold and Lyme-Old Lyme Superintendent Elizabeth Osga, will hold a series of meetings on Monday and Wednesday at Preston Veterans’ Memorial School. The sessions will begin at 9 a.m. Monday, with separate individual interviews with Mike House, supervisor of buildings and grounds at the town’s two schools, Board of Finance Chairman Norman Gauthier and with departing Superintendent Welch.

At 3:30 p.m., the consultants will hold a focus group meeting with school faculty and staff at the Veterans' Memorial School library. At 7 p.m. Monday at the Veterans' Memorial School library, parents and Preston residents are invited to a public focus group session with the consultants.

On Wednesday, the consultants will repeat the schedule with individual interviews with Veterans' Memorial Principal Ray Bernier, Preston Plains Middle School Principal and Curriculum Director Ivy Davis-Tomczuk, Special Education Director Eileen Hargreaves, First Selectman Robert Congdon and town and school Finance Director John Spang.

The consultants will meet again with faculty and staff at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Preston Plains Middle School library, and will hold a second public focus group session with parents and residents at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the middle school library.

Sean Nugent, Board of Education member and chairman of the Superintendent Search Committee, said the focus group sessions and individual interviews are part of the consultant’s process to help narrow down the selection of a new superintendent.

Because of the tight time schedule, a preliminary job description was posted in December before a refined posting was put out in January, Nugent said. Osga will sort through the initial applications based on their qualifications and what the consultants learn from the town focus groups. She will present recommendations to the search committee in spring.

The search committee, comprising Nugent, Board of Education members Cindy Luty and Charles Raymond, Board of Finance member Melissa Lennon and community representative Heather Helwig, hopes to have a recommendation to the Board of Education by late April to mid-May.

c.bessette@theday.com