UPDATED: Board of Carmel Unified School District votes 3-2 to accept Superintendent Ted Knight's resignation.

Transition at the top leadership level of Carmel Unified School District continues. On Friday, Aug. 11, the board of trustees announced that Superintendent Ted Knight is resigning in exchange for a separation payment of $770,000 and an agreement to dismiss various pending claims. 

Knight's contract was set to go through June 30, 2024. The separation agreement calls for him to be paid the amount he would have made in salary and benefits over a two-year time period.

The board voted 3-2 to accept the resignation. Trustees Sara Hinds, Karl Pallastrini and Jason Remynse voted yes while Seaberry Nachbar and Anne Marie Rosen voted no.

Knight was placed on leave effective April 1. The decision to put Knight on leave four-and-a-half months ago came amid widespread community concerns about allegations of sexual misconduct at Carmel High School and the administration's handling of it. Knight placed the popular CHS principal Jon Lyons on leave, and eventually Lyons was removed from his job. 

When the board voted back in March to place Knight on leave, it was pending an investigation into his handling of Lyons' removal. They hired Bob Henry of the firm School & College Legal Services to conduct that investigation. (The Weekly has filed a California Public Records Act request seeking a copy of that investigation.) 

As part of the separation agreement, Knight has agreed to drop all claims against the district. Those include a lawsuit filed July 24 in Monterey County Superior Court regarding production of documents pursuant to the California Public Records Act; a complaint filed in June with the California Civil Rights Department against the district; and a complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 

"In order to avoid the substantial expense, inconvenience, and distraction of further disputes and litigation, the parties now desire to fully and finally settle all claims," according to the agreement signed by both parties.

The district denies all claims made by Knight. 

"The agreement immediately brings all matters between the district and superintendent to a close with the goal of allowing the district and community to concentrate on supporting teachers and staff and continuing the student-focused work of the district," according to a statement the CUSD Board of Education sent to staff and families on Friday afternoon.

Since Knight was placed on leave, Deputy Superintendent Sharon Ofek has been serving as acting superintendentThe board is expected to appoint an interim superintendent when they meet on Aug. 16. The board will discuss the search for a new permanent superintendent in October.

Knight was hired on May 26, 2021 and served for just over two years (including the period he was on leave). He was CUSD's sixth superintendent since 2015 when Marvin Biasotti's five-year term ended. Next came Scott Laurence, located by a search firm, who held the job for one year; then interim superintendent Karen Henricks for one-and-a-half years; then Barbara Dill-Varga, also recruited by a search firm, who held the job for three years, from July 2017-June 2020, and agreed to resign two years before the end of her contract. Trisha Dellis served as a temporary interim before Knight was hired in 2020.