RUMFORD – SAD 43 Superintendent James Hodgkin has resigned his position effective June 30 to lead a school system nearer his home in Leeds, he said Monday.

He declined to reveal the name of the district until its board officially votes to hire him Wednesday.

Hodgkin, 48, has been superintendent for six years.

He was named assistant superintendent of the newly formed Western Foothills School District, which consolidates SAD 43 in Rumford, SAD 21 in Dixfield and SAD 39 in Buckfield, and the town of Hanover and begins operating July 1. That position will not exist after June 30.

“I’m not cut out to be an assistant superintendent although I’ve worked well with Tom ( Ward, superintendent of Western Foothills School District), and the new board and the community,” he said.

Ward said Hodgkin’s resignation will be taken up at the Western Foothills board meeting Tuesday.

“We feel badly that we are losing him. We’ve spent lots of hours together for the past year and a half (developing the new consolidated school district), but it’s a good opportunity for him,” Ward said.

Ward said with a tight budget in the new district, plans are to go without a full-time assistant superintendent. He said some of those duties may be added to his as well as to that of the curriculum coordinator.

He said, too, that cuts in the district’s administrative budget have already been figured into the proposed overall 2009-10 budget.

Hodgkin was principal of Monmouth Middle School before heading up SAD 43.

In his 25th year as an educator, he said he is proud of the abundance of awards SAD 43 has received in recent years, such as several state healthy school awards and one for the positive school climate.

“The staff is the most incredible people I’ve ever worked with. Their dedication to the students and to each other is unmatched,” he said.

Hodgkin said during his tenure that community support for the school district has grown.

“There’s a lot of pride in the schools.”

He and his wife, Mary Jo, a physical education teacher in Auburn, are the parents of four children.