Well, it’s always possible it’s a foregone conclusion that Pendleton is the best choice and Taynor (or whoever) and Puckett are moving along in the interview process because somebody predetermined a preset number of finalists.
However, you always have to have backup options…especially when looking at external choices that would be moving across the state for the job. Puckett is already employed at Centerville, and if the ex-college guy is Taynor he can be fairly easily employed at a large district such as Centerville being an intervention specialist. Pendleton is currently the AD at Ironton. He’s not going to be the AD at Centerville given they just hired a new AD, and would have to have some other type of job. Depending on what he can or can’t teach that may be an issue given that although Centerville just passed a levy, they have cut several dozen positions due to budget constraints in recent years.