Providence Schools Supt. Donnie Evans, at a meeting last month with a council of teachers from the city’s 42 schools.

The Providence Journal / Andrew Dickerman

PROVIDENCE — Supt. Donnie W. Evans unexpectedly announced last night that he will not try for another term as the city’s schools chief and will leave when his contract expires in September. Evans withdrew his candidacy hours before the School Board was to decide whether to renew the embattled superintendent’s contract for another three years.

Evans’ decision to step down comes amid a chorus of criticism from the City Council and the teachers union, much of it regarding his actions during the Dec. 13 snowstorm, when more than 100 schoolchildren were stuck on city school buses late into the night.

Mayor David N. Cicilline had also chastised his superintendent after the storm, but he insisted last night that Evans left of his own volition.

“The decision that Dr. Evans made not to seek renewal of his contract was his decision. I am certainly grateful for the work that he’s done. I am grateful for his dedication and his integrity and hard work. The responsibility now is to ensure we have the leadership that can move the district forward,” Cicilline said.

“Obviously, I don’t think it’s any secret that no one was satisfied with the pace of improvement,” Cicilline allowed.

Evans offered little insight into the reasons for his departure, saying in his resignation letter that he was leaving for “personal and professional reasons to pursue other opportunities.”

“My decision to leave was not made lightly. I want you, as well as every employee, student, and family in this district to know that my experience in Providence has been both rewarding and challenging,” Evans wrote to the School Board. He did not return calls seeking comment last night.

Evans’ contract runs through Sept. 19. Cicilline and School Board Chairwoman Mary McClure said that a nationwide search for Evans’ successor is already under way, but would answer no questions about specific candidates or whether interviews had taken place.

City Council Majority Leader Terrence M. Hassett said that he knew of talks between Providence officials and a high-ranking school official in Philadelphia about the Providence job. Last night, the Philadelphia Inquirer posted a story on its Web site stating that outgoing Philadelphia schools chief Tom Brady has emerged as a leading candidate for the Providence superintendent position. Brady, a retired Army colonel, has been Philadelphia’s interim chief executive officer for the past year.

Hassett and fellow council members Nicholas J. Narducci and Kevin Jackson are among a large group of anti-Evans councilors who have faulted the superintendent for what they said was poor communication during the storm. In advance of the decision on Evans this week, Hassett and Narducci issued statements calling for the board not to renew Evans. The City Council also went to the brink of voting no-confidence in the schools chief in January, before pulling back at the last minute under heavy pressure from the mayor. Hassett said that Evans’ departure is a good thing for the School Department, and that the council’s agitation helped push Evans out.

“I think the council’s resolve was very strong. The internal pressure, I think, combined with the public pronouncements about the lack of support, was a big factor in making this happen,” Hassett said.

The Providence Teachers Union has been just as loud in its condemnation of Evans. Last week, the union voted no confidence in Evans and McClure. The union and the city have been locked in a contract dispute for seven months.

Evans is the third straight superintendent to last only three years in Providence. Diana Lam came to the city in 1999, and left for the New York City school system in August 2002. She was replaced by Melody Johnson, who left for Fort Worth, Texas, in 2005 despite the School Board’s offer of another three-year deal. Evans succeeded her that fall.

Although Evans’ contract was set to run out in September, his deal stipulated that he must be given six months’ notice if it was not going to be renewed. The School Board has spent the last several months delving into Evans’ record in Providence in an attempt to decide whether to retain him.

Neither Cicilline nor McClure would say what the School Board would have decided had Evans not taken himself out of the running.

“He’s certainly brought a lot of expertise to the district. I have a great deal of respect for him and what he’s done with us, and I would like to thank him,” McClure said.

School Board Secretary Robert Wise, however, said that the board wanted Evans to return.

“We wanted to keep him around. We wanted him to stay,” Wise said.

McClure said she didn’t believe that Evans’ resignation had anything to do with criticism that he awarded the woman who would later become his wife, Charlene M. Staley, a contract with the School Department last year.

In April, the district hired Staley to develop and administer a questionnaire to special-education staff at a cost of $4,200, in addition to compensation for travel, lodging and meals. The contract ran from April 17 until Aug. 1.

In an interview last week, Evans denied that there was any conflict of interest involving his wife, whom he married a month ago, and expressed “outrage” that anyone was making an issue out of the contract.

Evans said that he met Staley in 1992 when he was working at the University of South Florida and she was the university liaison with the Tampa, Fla., school district.

After he became assistant superintendent in Tampa in 1998, Staley became a member of his staff, working first as the charter school director and later working in special education.

At the time, Evans described Staley as a “trusted colleague and friend,” but said they were not romantically involved. He said that a romantic relationship didn’t develop until the summer, after Staley was awarded the contract. By the time that Staley was hired, Evans said that he was already in the process of getting a divorce.

“Anyone who checks Charlene’s background would know right away that she is the most qualified person for the work,” Evans said last week. “She has taught special education to students with learning disabilities, to the mentally handicapped, for a long time. She had taught teachers and administrators. I saw her skills firsthand.”

The contract wasn’t put out to bid because it cost less than $5,000, the cut-off point. She is not doing any work for the school district at this time.

Evans, 58, came to the 26,000-student Providence system from the Tampa area, where he was a top administrator in the 190,000-student Hillsborough district. His most recent annual salary in Providence was $190,742.

In his resignation letter, Evans listed his greatest achievements here as: increasing the number of schools making annual progress; higher percentages of students performing at grade level; implementing intervention programs for struggling students; and gaining national recognition for several Providence schools.

At the same time, his critics said his list of failures included the closing of the West Broadway Elementary School, an increase in special education class sizes, and the snowstorm debacle.

lborg@projo.com