Wiscasset School Committee Chairman Steve Smith said he will be off the panel July 1. Smith announced April 28 he will not seek re-election.

His work schedule is the reason, Smith said in an interview. He will continue to help the school department in any way he can after leaving the committee, he said.

Smith was one of the original members voters seated after deciding to pull out of Regional School Unit 12.

He said Wiscasset is in a good place as a school department now, two years after withdrawal: The committee hired two great interim superintendents to see the department  through the transition and then found its first full-time superintendent, Heather Wilmot, Smith said. The move from three schools to two lowered costs; everything the committee has asked of residents has passed on the first try; and the addition of a drones class in 2015 was exciting, Smith added.

Asked what he felt had been the committee’s biggest accomplishment, he said that was finding and hiring Wilmot. Her new agreement to extend her three-year contract to five years, at no added cost the last two years, shows the level of her commitment, and that’s hard to find in a superintendent, he said.

Smith has been a fantastic chairman, Vice Chairman Eugene Stover said. Stover, also a committee member from the start, said he wished he could get Smith to reconsider his decision.

Smith has served the town well on the committee, Wilmot said.

One of his final acts will be to hand his son Sam Smith his diploma at Wiscasset Middle High School’s graduation June 2, Smith said, smiling. It’s a great way to end his time as a committee member, he said.

Smith’s departure means the panel will be getting at least one new member. Member Michael Dunn said he is running for another term.

Both terms up for election June 14 are for three years, Smith said.