The state board decided not to hire Mooneyhan as the interim state school commissioner on Saturday, opting instead to stick with its current interim commissioner, Education Department employee Kevin Noland.

Mooneyhan is the retired superintendent of schools in Shelby County. He says he wasn't seeking the interim state job when board chairman Keith Travis called him more than a week and a half ago, asking if he'd be interested. From there the two negotiated by phone, according to Mooneyhan. But its not clear what happened during Saturday's closed door session of the board in Frankfort, which resulted in the board sticking with Noland. Mooneyhan says Travis called him after the meeting but didn't offer an explanation on why the Mooneyhan candidacy went down the tubes, other than the board decided to forego hiring an interim commissioner to concentrate on finding a full time education commissioner.

And Mooneyhan isn't happy about the way he was treated telling me "I've never been subjected to a more unprofessional set of circumstances in all my life." Mooneyhan says the way the board muffed the hiring of Barbara Erwin and fumbled his candidacy "undermines my view of the board's ability to find a good commissioner for the children of Kentucky." And he agreed with a C-J editorial, Mooneyhan saying " the governor may need the board to resign. They are dysfunctional."

What's not clear is what happened to Travis' idea of hiring Mooneyhan for the interim job. My guess is the board is so divided and Travis has so little power that he couldn't muster the votes to approve the hiring of Mooneyhan. Another possibility is that the phone calls and lobbying by State Sen. Gary Tapp (R) Shelbyville, worked. Tapp was calling political heavyweights including senate leaders and apparently, the Governor's office, trying to torpedo Mooneyhan's chance of getting the interim education job. Apparently Tapp and Mooneyhan have some bad blood going back to the days when Mooneyhan led the Shelby County schools.

Whatever happened, it's clear board chairman Travis led Mooneyhan to believe he was getting the interim job. And Travis was either A) powerless to make it happen or B)politically and professionally inept in his dealings with Mooneyhan. The board's decision to keep Noland on board may well be the best decision, but the way it got there must give taxpayers and the Governor who chose them, plenty of reason for concern.