Park Ridge-Niles Community Consolidated School District 64′s Board of Education on Wednesday night selected BWP & Associates to lead the search for Superintendent Eric Olson’s replacement.

The board also settled on a timeline to accept applications and interview candidates to replace board member Nicole Woitowich.

News of Olson’s resignation went public Jan. 23. Woitowich submitted her resignation letter to the board president Jan. 27.

The board interviewed two other firms besides BWP & Associates: SchoolExec Connect and Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates.

Board member Gareth Kennedy said he supported hiring BWP to lead the search in part because its representatives showed they had listened to the previous board meeting and because of the firm’s track record of working in the area.

In its presentation, BWP’s representatives highlighted past searches they had conducted for East Maine School District 63 and Chicago Public Schools, whose CEO Pedro Martinez was hired after a BWP & Associates search.

The firm has also helped Lincolnwood School District 74, Skokie School District 69 and Arlington Heights School District 25 find new superintendents, according to its presentation.

The board had used SchoolExecConnect’s services to do the search that led to outgoing superintendent Eric Olson’s hiring.

Mark Friedman, Glenn Schlichting and Leighangela Brady will be the consultants leading the search for the next District 64 superintendent. Friedman and Schlichting are both retired school superintendents from Illinois. Brady is a current superintendent based in California.

In their presentation, Friedman and Schlichting laid out a rough timeline for recruiting and hiring a new superintendent by July 1. They said they would begin with determining the type of search and creating a “leadership profile” for the district’s ideal next superintendent through interviews with board members and surveys of the Park Ridge-Niles community.

By April, they said they aimed to bring between five and seven candidates to the board for interviews, to be narrowed down to a second round of two to three finalists.

The board has not yet determined whether it will seek an interim superintendent or an immediate permanent replacement for Olson.

The board agreed to meet Feb. 9 at 6 p.m. to begin determining details of the search process with BWP.

They also set a deadline of Feb. 21 at 4 p.m. for applications to fill the seat vacated by Woitowich, with interviews and a vote set to take place Feb. 27 at 6 p.m.

The chosen candidate will be officially sworn in at the regular board meeting March 16, according to information on the district website.