(1) Except as provided in section 23-3302, a county superintendent of schools shall be elected in each county as provided in section 32-527, except that no county superintendent shall be elected in a county (a) having a population of three thousand inhabitants or less and (b) which has been organized into a single school district under the direction of a single board of education and a superintendent of schools elected by that board of education. The superintendent of schools of such a county shall submit all reports and assume the duties required of the county superintendent. A qualified person need not be a resident of the county when he or she files for election as county superintendent, but if elected as county superintendent after November 1994, such person shall reside in the county in which he or she holds office.
(2) In counties or districts having a population of six thousand five hundred inhabitants or more, no person shall be eligible to have his or her name appear on the ballot as a nominee for the office of county superintendent at any primary election, to have his or her name appear on the ballot as a candidate for the office of county superintendent at any general election, or to be issued a certificate of nomination or election under the Election Act if he or she is the successful candidate for the office of county superintendent unless he or she holds a Nebraska certificate valid for administration in all elementary and secondary schools and in force on each such occasion except as otherwise provided for in subsection
(4) of this section.
(3) In counties having a population of less than six thousand five hundred inhabitants, each nominee, each candidate, and each recipient of a certificate issued under the act for the office of county superintendent shall hold a teacher's certificate issued in this state and in force and a baccalaureate degree from a standard institution of higher education and shall have had not less than three years of successful teaching experience if his or her name is to appear on the ballot or if he or she is to receive a certificate issued under the act except as otherwise provided for in subsection
(4) of this section.
(4) Any person now holding the office of county superintendent in any county who does not have the administrator or teacher's certificate required in a county of the size of the one in which he or she holds office, as provided by subsection
(2) or
(3) of this section, shall be eligible to be a candidate, nominee, or recipient of an election certificate for such office to succeed himself or herself in that office, except that a county superintendent referred to in subsection
(2) of this section, to be so eligible, must hereafter earn at least nine semester college hours of credit every four years until he or she qualifies for the administrator certificate referred to in subsection
(2) of this section.
(5) No person shall be appointed to fill a vacancy who does not, at the time of appointment, have the qualifications required for election to the office.
(6) A person may serve as county superintendent in more than one county if approved by the county boards of each of the counties.
(7) All provisions of law relating to the consolidation of county offices shall apply to the office of county superintendent. When the office of county superintendent is consolidated, the combined population of the counties involved shall be used for the purposes of subsections
(2) and
(3) of this section.