The Director of Education for the Prairie South School Division, Tony Baldwin, has submitted his resignation effective July 31, 2021.

Baldwin's letter of resignation, dated Oct. 8, was presented to the Board of Education during their meeting on Tuesday.

The letter was met with sadness among the trustees.

I appreciate his great work with us in the years previous and right now to even help us continue to succeed, as a division and so we sadly accept the letter," board chair Robert Bachmann said during the meeting.

Baldwin talked about why he's decided to step aside.

"I'm interested in maybe doing some different things and thought that that would be a good point to make the change. You know, and I think it's good for the school division as well. We have a new board in place and it's an exciting opportunity for them to be able to select the new CEO."

In the letter, Baldwin goes on to say that he's particularly committed to supporting the school division through the remainder of the pandemic, and helping the newly elected Board of Education take initial steps fulfilling governance responsibilities in Prairie South.

It was also specified in his contract to give eight-months notice before resigning.

Baldwin said his resignation has been in the works for some time now.

"This is something that the board and I've been talking about for more than a year at this point. I don't think it's a major surprise for the board that it's happening. So, we've been talking together about you know how they might explore options once I'm not around anymore."

He added that he is proud of all of the work that the Prairie South School Division has done while he was the director of education and feels the division is in good shape moving forward.

Baldwin started his role as Director of Education in 2014, coming from the position of Superintendent of Education with the Sun West School Division. Prior to his work as a Superintendent, Tony was the principal at Davidson High School for 11 years, a teacher at Chaplin School, and an instructor at the Canadian Forces Fleet School in Esquimalt, B.C.