WEST WARWICK — Kenneth Sheehan, a Warwick junior high school principal, has been tapped as a finalist for the superintendent position in West Warwick.

Members of the School Committee will conduct a site visit at Gorton Junior High School in Warwick next week.

“I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that it works out,” board Chairman Daniel T. Burns Jr. said yesterday.

West Warwick’s current superintendent, David Raiche, accepted the superintendent position in Plainville, Mass., in December. There, he will oversee the two elementary schools that make up the entire Plainville school district. His last day here is next Friday.

A 16-member search committee screened eight applicants and chose to recommend only Sheehan as a finalist. On Wednesday afternoon, School Committee members interviewed Sheehan for nearly two hours, Burns said.

Sheehan, principal of Gorton since 2000, has been an educator for almost 30 years, in school districts and programs throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Sheehan earned a bachelor’s degree in social studies, English and history from Providence College in 1974. He went back to PC to earn a master’s degree in education administration in 1983.

He started his career as a teacher at Seekonk Intermediate School. There, he taught English, social studies, geography and reading in grades 7 and 8. During that time, he also served as a career and vocational counselor for Self-Help, Inc. in Riverside. In 1981, he became the administrator of discipline at Seekonk High School, where he stayed for five years. He became principal at Joseph Case Junior High School in Swansea in 1986 and stayed there until accepting the Warwick principalship.

He holds certification to teach secondary classes in Massachusetts. He also is certified to be a director/supervisor, high school principal, middle school principal, superintendent and assistant superintendent in both Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

“I was impressed by his straightforward answers,” Burns said of Sheehan. “I didn’t hear any mumbling or hemming and hawing, he was right to the point. I zeroed in on the dropout rate and the middle school operation. I’m impressed with what he’s done.”

The School Committee is expected to make a decision by the end of the month. If he is offered the position, Sheehan will face the residents at the April 10 School Committee meeting, Burns said.

“He’ll be introduced so members of the community can pepper him with questions,” Burns said.

Beginning April 1, James A. DiPrete, chairman of the state Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education, will serve as the interim West Warwick superintendent for the remainder of the school year. The new superintendent will be in place by the start of the fall semester.

tbuford@projo.com