We're glad the city school district will have a new superintendent in place well before that start of the school year, but we're disappointed that the community was left in the dark - right up until the last minute - as the decision-making process unfolded.

The Auburn Enlarged City School District Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday night to appoint Joseph D. “J.D.” Pabis as the district's new superintendent. The appointment comes just two weeks after the board announced that 12 people had applied for the job.

We supported the idea of conducting a search for a new superintendent when others argued that Pabis, who had served as assistant superintendent in charge of personnel, finance and operations, and was later appointed interim school superintendent, should simply be appointed without looking at any other candidates.

Pabis may very well have turned out to be the strongest candidate for the job, but the school board didn't do him - or the community at large - any favors by keeping the search process so short and so private.

Instead of including a committee of community members to look over resumes or conduct interviews - as it did during the process that led to the appointment of current superintendent John Plume - the board held all of its discussions privately.

And instead of narrowing the number of resumes down to three and then having a public forum to allow people to hear from the candidates, as many school districts do, Auburn school board members didn't even bother to tell the public ahead of time that they were going to vote on the matter.

The agenda for Tuesday's school board meeting indicated the board would vote on changing the effective starting date of Pabis as interim superintendent. Instead, an addendum was presented resolving that the board “ ... hereby appoints ...” Pabis superintendent.

It's unfortunate for Pabis, the school district and the entire community that the appointment of Auburn's new school superintendent will be met with more than a little skepticism.