BELFAST - Regional School Unit 20 Superintendent Brian Carpenter submitted his resignation on Monday. His last day will be June 30, 2015. The date marks the end of his current contract. And in Carpenter’s view, it also represents the end of the district he was hired to serve.

“Dissolution of the RSU,” he said, Tuesday, when asked why he was resigning.

In theory, he could stay. Searsport and Stockton Springs will keep the RSU 20 name when the six other towns of the district leave next July. Five of the municipalities that voted in November to withdraw approved a second measure to create a new district, since named RSU 71. The sixth, Northport, withdrew alone and plans to operate a town-run K-8 school.

Carpenter said he might apply to be superintendent of one of the new RSUs or seek another position, but “not necessarily.”

“They’ll have an interim [superintendent] for the five-town district,” he said. That person will likely be hired in early 2015 while Carpenter is still with RSU 20. However, the permanent superintendent would not start until at least the beginning of the fiscal year, meaning Carpenter could be eligible.  “If they advertise, I might apply,” he said.

Carpenter signed on with RSU 20 in 2012, succeeding longtime local superintendent Bruce Mailloux, who retired. The former Aroostook County teacher and administrator had served in the U.S. Army and worked at one time in The Pentagon. He was also the first RSU 20 superintendent without ties to either of the two districts that preceded it — Mailloux led the Belfast-based SAD 34 prior to its consolidation with neighboring, Searsport-based SAD 56 in 2009.

In his first months on the job, Carpenter was credited with restoring harmony to the divided school board. But the honeymoon didn’t last long. Cuts in federal and state aid led to staff and program cuts, often in combination with local tax hikes. Carpenter was often the one delivering the unpopular news, but whatever public frustration resulted, he didn’t take it personally.

“Nothing came back toward me,” he said. “I did my job. I got them through the withdrawal process, which is where they were headed before I got here.”

When he joined RSU 20, voters in six former SAD 34 towns had already launched the first of two withdrawal bids. When that attempt failed at the polls, Belfast-based withdrawal supporters were quick to point a finger at low enrollment in Searsport and Stockton Springs as justification for a second try, reopening old wounds in the process.

Money, or lack of it, occupied a lot of the conversation during Carpenter’s tenure with RSU 20, but the superintendent was able to point to a long list of accomplishments that the district made, too, including expanding Pre-K from a half day to a full day, converting to standards-based education at Belfast Area High School, introducting Common Core, Searsport’s international student program and innovative school, and expanded dual enrollment opportunities, among others.

Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com