In yesterday’s Boston Globe, reporters Tracy Jan and Maria Sacchetti reported that Deborah Sims, SFUSD’s assistant superintendent of K-12 operations and Arlene Ackerman, former superintendent of SFUSD are on the short list for the next superintendent of schools for Boston’s public schools.

According to the Globe, a 12-member search committee selected the five finalists behind closed doors. The next step is for a private search consultant to see if the five contenders would be willing to meet will meet with assorted community groups in public forums during a two-day visit to the city. The public process may deter candidates, the sources said, and more names may be added if that occurs.

Then Boston’s School Committee will make the final selection who will replace Boston’s Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant who is retiring.

The Globe’s sources said that the other three in the running to replace Payzant are:

Nancy J. McGinley, chief academic officer of Charleston County School District in South Carolina.

Mary Grassa O’Neill, a former Milton superintendent and former Boston schools administrator who now works at Harvard training principals.

Manuel J. Rivera, superintendent of Rochester City School District.

The Globe reported that the School Committee has been especially interested in someone who can accelerate academic improvements begun by Payzant, but can connect with parents and community members in a way that Payzant did not.

Ackerman had earlier announced that she had accepted a endowed chair in education at Columbia University, which was to begin in Sept. 2006. Prior to being assistant superintendent, Sims was a principal at Jose Ortega Elementary School and her mother and aunt were also princiipals at SFUSD schools.