Tupelo Public School District Assistant Superintendent Fred Hill will not be the next superintendent in Birmingham, Ala.

The Birmingham Board of Education chose Edgecombe County, N.C., Superintendent Craig Witherspoon in a 6-3 vote late Thursday night, according to the Birmingham News. Clayton County, Ga., Assistant Superintendent Valya Lee received the other three votes.

Hill was one of three finalists for the job. He said he had submitted his name to a search firm because he wants to one day become a superintendent and that he was caught off guard when the firm quickly called him and asked him if he'd be interested in applying for the Birmingham job. The interview should be a good experience for Hill, who has been an assistant superintendent for just over five months after spending two years as a middle school principal in Whiteville, N.C.

Hill will now be able to continue some of the initiatives he's been working on in Tupelo: helping the district implement its new laptop program, standardizing the curriculum on the sixth- to 12th-grade level and starting a program to aid middle school students who have fallen two years behind their peers academically.