State school superintendent to retire at the end of the school year

Maryland school superintendent Nancy Grasmick announced her retirement this afternoon at the State Department of Education headquarters. She will step down June 30, a year before her contract expires. State superintendent Nancy Grasmick will retire at the end of this year. Photo courtesy msa.md.gov.

Grasmick, the longest-serving school chief in the country, has served as state superintendent for two decades. Since her arrival, the Maryland school system won numerous national awards, including the nation’s best school system award from Education Week three years in a row.

“Our students and our schools have made tremendous progress over the past two decades, and stand on the edge of even greater progress,” Grasmick said in a press release. “It has been my great honor and privilege to work with our state’s outstanding educators to provide our children with the educational system they richly deserve.”

Governor O’Malley thanked Grasmick for her work as state superintendent of schools, setting aside their past disputes about education policy.