At a special meeting of the North Syracuse Central School District Board of Education, the board announced that Superintendent Dr. Kim Dyce Faucette has resigned.

After a 30-minute executive session, Board President Pat Carbone made a resolution to approve the separation agreement between Dyce and the district. The board unanimously approved the resolution.

Annette Speach, assistant superintendent for educator effectiveness and human resources, was appointed interim superintendent. She said the district had not yet decided how it would proceed in replacing Dyce in the long term.

Carbone refused to comment further on the action, instead distributing a press release to media in attendance.

“This is a decision that was not made lightly,” Dyce wrote in the release. “The board and I are in mutual agreement regarding this course of action… the board needs to move in some new directions, and it is time for me to step aside… it is with a heavy heart that I have to say goodbye.”

Dyce came to North Syracuse in August of 2011, replacing Dr. Jerome Melvin, who retired. Her tenure has seen significant controversy, including two failed budgets, a race-based casting issue in the Cicero-North Syracuse musical “The Wiz,” the firing of softball coach Kerry Bennett and the suspension of a student over comments he made on Twitter about the budget.

The board will buy Dyce out of the last year of her contract. The details of the buyout were not immediately available. Dyce’s annual salary is $182,000, plus benefits.

For more on this story, see the July 17 edition of the Star-Review.