STAFFORD — School officials will soon begin their search for a new superintendent of schools.
It will be the county’s fourth superintendent in eight years.
Dr. Bruce Benson announced his resignation from the division during a School Board meeting Tuesday night, more than 24 hours after the news of his departure broke by North Carolina news outlets — the state where Benson is headed.
“Anybody who thinks this is not hard for me, you are wrong,” Benson told the School Board.
He will remain with the school division through the end of the school year in June. During this time, he said there is much work to be done to include:
Balance a 2019 school budget
- Approve a capital improvement plan
- Work out a plant to continue to modernize facilities
- Approve a school calendar for the coming year
“We’re going to make sure those things get done. There will be no loose ends at the end of the June,” said Benson.
Hired in 2014, Benson will leave the school division in the third of a four-year contract extension that was set to expire in 2019.
Former Falmouth District School Board representative came to Tuesday’s meeting to sing Benson’s praises. He was on the school board that hired Benson.
“…from the moment you sat down in the interview I said this is the guy that we need,” said Hirons, who admitted he was thinking of stepping down from the job during his tenure. “Your steadiness, calmness, is what made me stay on the school board for full four years.”
Benson is leaving Virginia for the Alamance-Burlington School District in North Carolina after 35 years as an educator in Virginia.
He told Potomac Local the most important things facing the Stafford school division are finding the needed funds to pay teachers a more competitive salary, and creating and maintaining a capital improvement plan.
Willam C. Symons, Jr. served as an interim schools superintendent prior to Benson’s arrival from 2013 to 2014.
Dr. Randy Bridges was the superintendent from 2010 to 2013 and was hired as the first full-time school superintendent to work in Stafford since 2006.
