Iowa City Community School District Superintendent Stephen Murley announced his intention to resign in a letter to staff and families on October 1. The superintendent will officially leave his position in June of 2021, the end of his contract with the district.

This decision comes as Murley’s youngest son approaches graduation. 

The letter reads “[Our family] is very excited to watch our youngest son walk across the stage as he graduates this May. Our sons have been well prepared for post-secondary education, career, and life. For that we owe this community our heartfelt gratitude.”

In his remaining two years as superintendent, Murley plans to wrap up ongoing projects and implement new policies.

“We’ve got some work we need to get done, we need to wrap up the facilities master plan […] and we’ve got a few other buildings that we’re working on right now we want to make sure we get completed,” Murley said in a phone call with WSS. “We’ve got some curriculum were doing in ELA, we are in the process of updating our diversity, equity, and inclusion plan and we want to make sure that that’s off to a good start.”

Overall, Murley stresses his gratitude to the district and to the Iowa City community.

“I want to really emphasize how grateful I am to the community for this opportunity to serve,” he said. “It’s hard to believe that I came here in 2010 – it feels like yesterday – but it’s been so meaningful to have had the privilege to serve as superintendent of schools here.”