SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - After one year of being superintendent of Yellowknife Catholic Schools (YCS), Gwen Keith has resigned from her position due to "personal family reasons," according to a press release received on Monday.

"She's left our system," said board chair Mary Vane.

Keith started as superintendent last fall and was at the helm of YCS through the board merger controversy that had Yellowknife's Catholic community worried for the survival of their school system. She said in the release that she will be around to help the board through the transition to a new superintendent, which will happen over the next few months.

Discussing the present situation, Vane said "Claudia Parker is (the acting superintendent) and the board will be going through a process to hire a new superintendent."

Parker, the school district's assistant superintendant of learning, "was set to be acting superintendent anyway, because Gwen was going to be taking holidays," said Vane.

The superintendent takes holidays when her schedule permits along with what time she prefers, said Vane, whereas others in the education industry take their holidays according to the school breaks. The fact that Keith's departure coincided with her holidays was convenient for the school district, as the board already had an acting superintendent in place, said Vane.

"At any time when a superintendent is away - say they go on a week's holiday - then they must have somebody in the acting position because somebody has to be in a power of authority."

Parker will be acting superintendent until the board finds someone to permanently take the position.

Vane said the transition to a new superintendent should go smoothly over the summer, although there is still lots of work for the superintendent to do.

"There's lots of work to be done this summer in preparation for the fall, because you know school starts at the end of August and things have to be in place for when school begins," said Vane.

Keith did not return phone calls by press time.