A new agricultural bioscience school will soon have its first director, who will determine whether the school will open in the fall of 2013.

The Global Impact STEM Academy Board of Directors will meet in special session Thursday to hire an interim director for the science, technology, engineering and math-focused school.

The unnamed director first will be asked to determine if the school can still open for the 2013-14 school year as previously planned, said board member and Springfield City School District Superintendent David Estrop.

“One of the first tasks that we will ask him to do is take a look at four major areas: student recruitment, facilities, scheduling as it relates to the first two and the instructional program, and give us some sense as what he or she would see as the appropriate timeline for those areas,” he said.

Officials have stated they hoped to open the school for an inaugural group of ninth and 11th graders for next school year, but the deadline to launch is quickly approaching.

“That becomes one of the first and most important responsibilities, is assessing in their judgment where we are and looking at where we would like to be and laying out some plans to get us there as quickly as possible, but also being mindful that we do want to do it right and we don’t want to sacrifice quality for expediency,” Estrop said.

The STEM school would focus on preparing students for jobs in the agricultural science industry; one in seven Ohio jobs are in the agriculture industry.

The school is planned to be located in the former South High School, which has been closed as as school since 2008. A state agency that oversees the distribution of state funds to assist with building projects raised concerns about plans for the school’s location but Global Impact officials are working to address those with the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission to move forward, said Estrop.

“To me, that’s where it’s going to be,” he said. “That’s a given. That’s already been decided. It will be at South. And that decision has already been made.”

OFCC’s concerns include the cost of renovating South for new use and decreasing enrollment and population figures for Springfield schools and Clark County.

The proposal for the school from Sen. Chris Widener, R-Springfield, may have saved the historic site.

“I can’t predict the future, my crystal ball broke a long time ago,” said Estrop. “But we sure didn’t have much luck up to this point finding either a tenant or a buyer for South. Our greatest concern as a school district was that left without a use that the building would fall, as all buildings do fall, into disrepair and at some point the school system would have to face the same issue that was faced with Memorial Hall.”

Memorial Hall was a historic building that was torn down recently.

The STEM academy, which would lease about 70,000 square feet for $1 a year from Springfield schools, would breathe new life into South and the neighborhood, Estrop said.

“That’s why this one is so critical because even though the Global Impact STEM Academy may not occupy all of South, I think what you’re going to see is other institutions now are going to be interested in occupying it with Global Impact STEM Academy and making use of that great space over there,” he said.

The board will meet at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Hollenbeck Bayley Conference Center, 275 South Limestone St., to vote on the new director.