The State Board of Education wants to move quickly to hire a new executive director.

But the applications for the $125,000- to $135,000-a-year job will remain under wraps.

The two-week application window for the executive director’s job closed Friday. State Board spokesman Blake Youde said he’s unsure how many people have applied for the job.

The applications — and at least some applicants’ names — will not be made public. Under an exemption in Idaho public records law, “Names of applicants to classified or merit system positions shall not be disclosed to the public without the applicant’s written consent.”

The State Board did not ask applicants for written consent, so their names will not be made public, Youde said.

The state will release the names of the five finalists for the job, as state law requires. But their applications will not be made public.

Mike Rush, a 29-year State Board veteran, is leaving for an administrative job with the South Dakota Board of Regents. Rush has been executive director for eight years; his last day on the job is June 26. (Click here for our profile of Rush.)

The board hopes to hire a successor before Rush leaves, “(But) they won’t choose somebody just to hit that deadline,” Youde said Tuesday.