MARIETTA - Two Cobb County School District executives are among the top three finalists for superintendent of Douglas County Schools.

Dr. Gordon Pritz, Cobb County's associate superintendent of operational support, and Dale Gaddis, one of the district's six area superintendents, were both selected by the Douglas County Board of Education on Friday as finalists for the job. The other is Dr. Christie Williams Johnson, an assistant superintendent at Carroll County Schools.

Pritz, who has been in his executive position with CCSD since 2006, said via e-mail Friday that he set his sights on becoming a superintendent of a school district about five years ago, but claims he has been fairly selective with his applications. He said Douglas County is "a good fit with my talent and skills."

"I have studied carefully the Douglas County School System and believe a lot of what I am looking for in a school system ... exists in Douglas County," Pritz said. "I think I have a lot to offer them and I know they appeal to me in many ways."

Pritz said serving as a district leader would be a new and exciting challenge, and he would enjoy the opportunity to have a broader impact on a larger audience.

"The new role of being the visible and, ultimately, the responsible leader of the school system as the superintendent will be the single biggest challenge in a new position such as this," he said.

Pritz's salary is about $140,000 a year.

Gaddis was unavailable for comment by press time on Friday.

Gaddis earns about $116,000 a year.

For the next round of interviews, the three candidates will meet with the five-member Douglas County Board of Education on April 1 in a special called meeting. Karen Stroud, spokeswoman for Douglas County Schools, said the board could announce a decision on or after April 12.

Douglas County School's current superintendent, Don Remillard, announced in October that he will retire May 31 after 38 years of service to the district. He began with the district in 1972 as a math teacher and has served as the superintendent since 2003.

Remillard earns about $236,000 annually.

The district has 32 schools, including four high schools, and serves more than 24,000 students. It employs about 3,300 full-time positions, including more than 1,800 teachers.

Gaddis, who has been with Cobb County Schools since 1983, has served in several executive positions and, at one time, held the same position as Superintendent Fred Sanderson when the two were the system's high school executive directors. He has been District 2 superintendent, which includes Campbell and Osborne high schools, since the inception of the area superintendent positions in 2002.

In 2007, Gaddis was a strong proponent of controversial curriculum mapping, which board member Dr. John Abraham, who was new at the time, criticized as a waste of valuable teaching time.

Pritz, who returned to Cobb County in 2006, previously served as the assistant superintendent at Marietta City Schools. He was also the high school principal in that district. He began his career in 1977 as a sixth grade teacher in Indiana and came to Cobb County in 1979 as an elementary school teacher. Pritz taught and served as the head wrestling coach and assistant football coach at both Wheeler and McEachern high schools.

Last May, when Pritz's contract was up for renewal, then-Chairman Abraham was the only board member to vote against extending the associate superintendent's contract. The vote was 6-1. At the time, Abraham said he voted against extending the contract because he wanted to see someone with more experience in the business of construction and operations in that role.