On March 17, the Agency of Education announced that education secretary Dan French was stepping down to take a position with the Council of Chief State School Officials.

In the months that followed, state officials seemed to take a, shall we say, unhurried approach to filling the vacancy. In fact, it wasn’t until Monday, September 25 that the state Board of Education formally posted the job opening.

And the application deadline is October 5. That’s a filing period of only 11 days.

Eleven days.

Recapping here. They took 192 days, more than half a year, before opening the “search,” and now that they’ve finally gotten around to it, the search process will last a mere 11 days.

That’s weird. On both ends.

On the front side, why wait more than six months to even begin to fill such a crucial post? The job didn’t change.

On the back side, 11 days is a ridiculously short period of time to search for such a high-profile position. There will be none of the usual bullshit, I trust, about a wide-ranging nationwide search, because 11 days is nowhere near enough time for such a thing.

Extra bonus insult to the principle of public accountability: On October 2, the Board of Education will hold a public hearing “for any and all Vermonters to share their perspectives on what qualities and attributes they hope to see in the next Secretary of Education.”

The hearing is scheduled to last one hour. Talk about tokenism.

It all adds up to a two-part conclusion: (a) the search is perfunctory in nature and (b) they’ve already got their candidate. And I suspect that said candidate is French’s former deputy, now serving as interim secretary, Heather Bouchey.

Six month delay in posting? Give Bouchey a chance to build a bit of a record as secretary. (For the more conspiratorially-minded, give Bouchey a chance to prove her fealty to Scott administration education policies. Last thing they want is another Rebecca Holcombe gumming up the works.)

Eleven day application period? Not enough time for outside candidates with inconveniently superior experience to even learn of the opening, let alone decide to apply.

Cherry on top: The governor’s long track record of filling cabinet vacancies by promoting the deputy — first as interim and eventually as permanent occupant.

It all fits. Prepare to welcome our new education secretary, following a fast-as-lightning search process that will follow the legal requirements while still greasing the skids for the preferred internal candidate.