GUILFORD – Greg Bellemare, who has served as SAD 4 administrator for 17 years, has submitted his resignation effective at the close of the school year.

Bellemare plans to move to Phoenix, where he will take a position as a principal.

Bellemare has served for 11 years as principal at Piscataquis Community Middle School and an additional six years as assistant principal and athletic director at Piscataquis Community High School.

“Things just kind of fell into place,” Bellemare said Monday of his planned move. The fact that his youngest son, Brad, graduates this year from Foxcroft Academy and that the family’s house sold on the market quicker than anticipated was enough to convince him and his wife, Phyllis, to make the move this summer.

Bellemare, who has visited Arizona a few times in recent years and enjoyed the weather, said he and his wife will work for the Higley Unified School District. He will serve as a principal and she as a third-grade teacher.

Bellemare said he will start his new job on July 1 and plans to leave Piscataquis County on June 24-25 to drive to Arizona.

The Higley school district has about 8,300 pupils compared with about 1,000 in SAD 4, according to Bellemare.

SAD 4 officials are advertising for a new principal for the middle school.