After just one year on the job, Garden Valley Superintendent Marc Gee has resigned to take over as the Preston School District’s next superintendent.

“Nobody saw this coming,” said Garden Valley trustee Alan Ward. “We were happy with his performance. He was very good.”

Gee told Garden Valley staff on Monday that he was resigning but would finish out the year. Gee grew up in Sugar City and he established his education career with the Sugar-Salem School District. (Click here to read our profile on Gee.)

Garden Valley was Gee’s first district leadership position after years as a teacher, principal and federal programs director with Sugar-Salem.

The Preston School District emailed a press release Tuesday afternoon confirming Gee’s hire and that he begins on July 1. Preston’s current superintendent Joel Wilson resigned earlier this year and has applied for other superintendent positions in Idaho and Wyoming. Gee would not comment for this article.

Wilson was one of three superintendent finalists for the Pocatello-Chubbuck School District but trustees promoted Doug Howell.

Garden Valley will now search for its third superintendent in five years. Randy Schrader was the superintendent for three years before Gee took over.

Schrader is now a data analyst for Idaho Education News and is assisting the Horseshoe Bend School District find a new leader. Horseshoe Bend’s last two superintendents resigned abruptly amidst controversy and the district has been without a permanent superintendent for a year.

“We’ll immediately start recruiting,” Ward said of his Garden Valley district. “We’ve done this before. We should be getting pretty good at it.”