Whitesburg, Ky. (WYMT) - A long time Eastern Kentucky school superintendent announces her retirement. Anna Craft says she will step down as head of the Letcher County school system at the end of June.

It started as a special meeting to approve new contracts for a couple of school system employees, but Superintendent Craft said the time was right to write the last line on an education career that spanned decades.

Letcher County Board of Education Chairman Robert Kiser says the announcement of Superintendent Craft's retirement took everyone by surprise.

"None of us was expecting that," Kiser said. "You know we was coming in to review a contract, to renew or potentially whatever needed to be done."

Kiser says Monday night's school board meeting was called to renew contracts for two Letcher County Public Schools employees, namely attorney Darell Hall and school board secretary Debbie Cook.

A review of the Superintendent's contract was also included, but Kiser says the board had not planned to take any action.

"We were planning on actually acting upon that part of this agenda tonight at at the next meeting. Tonight was just strictly going to be a discussion on that," he said.

The chairman says Superintendent Craft's contract is set to expire June 30th. Now that she has announced her retirement, the school board will have to find her replacement.

"I think we're going to look at going with the Kentucky School Boards Association, and get their input and help advertising and finding a new superintendent," Kiser said.

Whoever takes the job, Kiser says they will have big shoes to fill.

Tonight's school board meeting was a special meeting, which means the board could not take any action on items that were not on the agenda. The board will be able to formally accept Superintendent Craft's retirement notice at their regular meeting next week.