After two and a half years as Wiscasset High School's principal, Deb Taylor is resigning and looking ahead to a new job with Regional School Unit 12.

“It was a difficult decision to resign from my current position,” Taylor writes in an email response to questions from the Wiscasset Newspaper.

“I care deeply about the school and this community. It is home, and I have greatly enjoyed my time at WHS. I truly believe that this school is a special place with caring, dedicated staff and wonderful students.”

Taylor is the top candidate for the district's newly created job of director of technology and curriculum, Superintendent Howard Tuttle said March 14. A committee of administrators and others is recommending the district board hire her, Tuttle said.

In her email March 14, Taylor writes that she is excited about the new job and the challenge it offers. It will mean implementing several state initiatives, she writes.

“I am pleased to have the opportunity to play a leadership role in transitioning the RSU into this new era of education,” Taylor writes. She notes that her hiring still needs the district board's approval on March 27.

The district will be fortunate to have her, Tuttle said in a telephone interview Friday evening. “She's a great leader. She's good at moving staff forward, and doing it in a way that maintains morale and benefits students,” he said.

The job Taylor is up for results from downsizing the district is doing in its central office, Tuttle said. The job combines an assistant superintendent's position and a technology director's position, for a savings of about $100,000, he said.

Assistant Superintendent Pat Watts has informed district staff she will be retiring, Tuttle said. Technology Director Tom Toner resigned in December 2013, effective in February, but he will be staying on for some time past that date, Tuttle said.

The central office’s downsizing stems from Wiscasset’s withdrawal, Tuttle said. The town is out of the district on July 1.

In her March 10 resignation letter, Taylor, a 1989 Wiscasset High graduate, calls her departure from the principal's job bittersweet.

“It is a delightful school that is truly 'small but mighty,’” she writes. The letter cites some highlights from this past year, including the school's reaccreditation with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges; sports teams' making it to state contests; and the school's recent win of Portland television station WGME's Spirit Challenge.

“There is no question that the school faces some challenges moving forward as we recreate a stand-alone school district. I am confident, however, that the spirit that carried us to success in these other endeavors will bring us through this challenge successfully as well,” Taylor states in the letter.

She's not the only one excited about the change she is making, according to the letter: “My son, who will be a ninth grader at Wiscasset High School next year, is equally excited that his mother will not be principal there,” she writes.

Taylor went to work at the school in 2001, teaching French and Spanish; she became athletic director and assistant principal in 2010, and then principal in 2011.

Wiscasset Police Chief Troy Cline said he was saddened and disappointed that Taylor she is resigning.

“I have developed a strong professional relationship with Mrs. Taylor and also consider her a friend,” Cline writes in a March 17 email response to Wiscasset Newspaper. “... With her help and support, officers ... were welcome any time at the high school. I understand her reasons for moving on and wish her the very best.

 “... I look forward to establishing a similar relationship with her successor in the fall,” Cline writes.

Interim Wiscasset Superintendent of Schools Wayne Dorr said he will be speaking with the Wiscasset School Committee about advertising for the principal’s position.

Dorr called Taylor a talented principal who understands the culture of a high school; the new job with the district will be a good fit for her, he said.