Dr. Daniel Craig sat in his office chair Monday morning battling a wide array of emotions.

It wasn’t yet 9:30 a.m. and Craig had already accepted a new position at a Chisholm Trail Technology Center Board of Education special meeting and subsequently emailed a resignation letter as superintendent of Kingfisher Public Schools to his own board members.

It was just 55 weeks ago that Craig was offered – and accepted – the job of superintendent at his alma mater.

“All of my friends who are superintendents now or in education said it’s the best job in the state,” Craig said the night he was hired. “They told me that if it was offered, I had to take it.”

But there he sat just over a year later having resigned that job.

While ecstatic about a new career opportunity at CTTC, he couldn’t help but express some regret about leaving KPS.

“It’s really hard,” he said. “It’s disappointing because I planned on staying here a really, really long time.

“It does break my heart.” So how did he get to this point? First, Craig wanted to discuss what it wasn’t about.

Just weeks after he officially took over, Kingfisher Public Schools as well as two current and two former coaches were named in a lawsuit filed on behalf of a John Doe No. 1 that alleged a culture of hazing within the football program.

While the lawsuit has consumed considerable amounts of Craig’s time on the job, he said notions of its presence being a force in driving him away are ill conceived.

“We have very good attorneys that have worked very diligently on this case and I have faith in those attorneys,” Craig said.

“So, no, this didn’t have anything to do with the lawsuit.”

Rather, Craig said, his decision had more to do with “fit.”

When Craig earned his education in leadership doctorate from Oral Roberts University, his dissertation topic was on superintendent evaluation and board relations.

“In my research, plus all my time at the state, what you’re going to find in school districts all around the state is that it’s all about fit between the superintendent and the school board,” Craig said. “You’ve got to have the right fit.”

The past year has led him to believe the fit at Kingfisher is not him.

“In the end, I don’t think I was the right fit for this school board,” Craig told the Times & Free Press.

“I believe the school board would be better able to manage the day-to-day operations of the school district with a different superintendent who is a better fit.

“It does break my heart.”

“And that superintendent would need to be able to implement the goals of individual board members effectively and I’m just not that guy.”

That, said Craig, is what his gut-churning decision boiled down to.

He spoke glowingly of his administration, staff and students.

He added, “The community support has been great. Whether talking to people at ballgames and plays and musicals to seeing people when we go out to eat…people have come up to me and offered support. They’ve come to my office to offer support for me and the district.”

Craig and his, wife, Kaycie, he said have loved living in Kingfisher. Their youngest daughter, Ava, just completed her senior year at KHS.

“She has really blossomed here,” Craig said. “She made great friends here and the teachers and administrators were great. She told me she wished she had started school here way back when she was in pre-k.”

Craig discussed other positives of the past year.

From a facilities standpoint, the new junior high was completed and he talked about the long-term building plans that have been begun at Gilmour Elementary, the ag barn, new locker rooms and renovations to the concession stand/restrooms at the football field.

Craig discussed the work that’s been done to improve benchmark tests and ACT scores in the past year.

He also talked about the Take Flight reading program which was partially funded by Go For Public Schools.

“We’ve seen our reading scores increase significantly and the number of kids retained has dropped significantly,” he said. “The work that program has done with dyslexia has really been beneficial. Now, all that started before me, but the staff here has done a great job working with it.”

Craig also mentioned garnering pay raises for support staff and stipends for all staff throughout the year.

There have been many successes, he said, but he still was conflicted enough to resign.

“I’d be lying if I didn’t say this is really disappointing,” Craig said.

“But it’s been the toughest year of my entire life.”

Craig said he stepped away from a dream job of sorts because of that lack of “fit.”

“I think being a superintendent would be tough anywhere right now, but being a first-year superintendent is even tougher,” he said.

“But I think I’ve experienced some things in one year that some others haven’t experienced in 10 years as a superintendent, I’ve been told.”