Lebanon -- Superintendent Mike Harris will depart in June and accept an administrative position at Dartmouth College.

Harris, who has supervised daily operations in the Lebanon School District for 11 years, will become head of Dartmouth's Teacher Education Program and teach one undergraduate class.

“It's a great place to be and a great job,” said Harris, a Dartmouth graduate. “If you would have asked me two years ago what would be my ideal after being superintendent, this would have been it. It's been fortuitous for me.”

Harris, 59, informed the Lebanon School Board of his decision in a closed-door session in August. He said he plans to submit a letter of resignation at the board meeting on Oct. 14, but this week notified principals and teachers of his departure.

“We are all saddened to hear he will be moving on,” School Board Chairwoman Laura Dykstra said. “At the same time, we recognize what a wonderful opportunity he has at Dartmouth that not one of us can say he shouldn't do. It seems like a terrific step forward.”

Harris, an Etna resident, will fulfill his three-year contract, which expires at the end of June. The decision to stay on will again place Harris at the center of the district's struggle to persuade Lebanon residents to approve building a new middle school, a proposal that has roiled the city for two years and come to largely define Harris' time in Lebanon.

Since March 2008, voters have three times rejected plans to build a new middle school, decrying the proposals as too expensive and unnecessary. School official say the current junior high school, built in 1926, is too small and that repairs would be too expensive.

In each vote, the new school proposal won more than 50 percent of the vote but fell short of the 60 percent required by state law. Even after voters rejected a new school in March, the district proceeded with a consolidation plan and last summer closed two schools, School Street School and Sacred Heart Public School, further angering some in the community.

The School Board plans in March to hold a fourth vote, and is currently debating whether to ask for renovation and expansion of the existing junior high school building on Bank Street, or to build a new middle school, either on Route 4 or at the current Bank Street site. Both proposals are estimated to cost well more than $20 million.

Harris said his frustration with the ballot box defeats is not behind his decision to leave. Rather, he said he had grown more tired of the mundane tasks of a superintendent, including attending numerous board meetings every week, and solving numerous small daily problems.

“You do 11 years of three meetings a week and being out there in public and trying to deal with every little problem -- that's what's wearying,” Harris said. “The big stuff, you take it on and deal with it. In the end, the little stuff is tiring.”

When asked whether he would still be leaving the district if a new middle school project had been approved, Harris answered “probably.”

“I've been doing this for 11 years,” Harris said. “I'll be 60. It would have been time to consider what I wanted to do anyway.”

Harris, who was paid $120,000 this year, said he would recommend that the school board have named his successor before the March school vote, to insure stability.

The board now faces a busy year. In addition to finding Harris' successor and crafting a new school plan that can win 60 percent of the vote, it has been mulling changes to the math curriculum that have roiled some parents.

But since Harris announced his decision in August, there has been no talk of delaying the junior high proposal, Dykstra said yesterday.

Harris said he will recommend that the board hire a private company to launch the search for his successor. While the board has not made any decisions, Dykstra said she is inclined to support that idea

“There is a lot on our plate,” Dykstra said.

At Dartmouth, Harris will head a small department dedicated to sending talented students into the country's public schools. Harris will serve as director and as a teacher; together, both responsibilities will amount to a part-time job. While Dartmouth undergraduates cannot major in education, the college offers a teacher certification program and currently has eight undergraduates in that program.

Andrew Garrod, current director of the Teacher Education Program, said the college was drawn to Harris' mix of academic credentials -- a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth, master’s from Columbia University in special education and a doctorate from the University of New Hampshire in education administration -- and real world education experience.

“He has a very good academic record and deep knowledge of schools and the work of teachers and superintendents,” said Garrod, who is retiring.

Lebanon Junior High School Principal Andy Mellow credited Harris for giving a great deal of autonomy to the district's five principals. For example, when Mellow was principal at the Hanover Street School, Harris allowed him to create a special education program in which teachers advanced in grade levels along with their students.

“He believed each site should manage their building, and I have appreciated it,” said Mellow, a principal for five years under Harris. “He was very good at identifying the issues he can let the principals take off with and the issues that everyone needs to pay attention to across the school district.”

However, Mellow said he suspects Harris would like a more lasting accomplishment.

“I'm sure he'd like his legacy to be a new middle school,” Mellow said, “and he's been working awfully hard to try to do that.”

Mark Davis can be reached at mcdavis@vnews.com or (603) 727-3304.