Juan Henderson, principal at Troy Elementary School, announced Thursday he is leaving the system.

“It’s bittersweet,” he told members of the Troy City Schools Board of Education during the monthly meeting. “I went to school in this system, I graduated from this system, I started my career in this system and I had a chance to come back and work as a principal in this system … I’ll always be a Trojan.

“But we’ve come to a crossroads with this opportunity for myself and my family.”

Henderson, whose resignation is effective June 30, will move to the Chicago area, where his wife will become the regional manager for Banfield Pet Hospital. He has been principal at TES for three years.

“Great things are happening, and I believe we’ll keep the momentum going,” he said. “And (I) will be leaving, but we’ve got a lot of work left to do, and we want to end on a positive note.”

In addition to Henderson’s resignation, the board accepted the resignation of Gregg Baker, social studies teacher and high school coach, effective March 22; and the retirement of Pamela Merkel, longtime Spanish teacher at Charles Henderson High School, effective May 31. The board also approved a leave of absence for Kimberly Sellers at the Troy Pike Center for Technology and the hiring of Rodney Jordan as a Social Studies teacher at Charles Henderson High School.

In a move that gained praise from board members, Superintendent Lee Hicks recommended the board make a $5,000 donation to the Miracle Field Playground fundraising effort being led by the City of Troy Parks and Recreation Department. “We have so many of the children in our system who will benefit from this project,” Hicks said. “We do feel like it would be a wonderful thing for us to give money for this.”

The board members approved the appropriation from local funds, with Wally Lowery adding “it’s actually an honor to serve on a board that would offer a little bit to help these children out.”

In other business, the board:

• Approved the graduate awards requirements. The new guidelines stipulate the criteria for determining the valedictorian and salutatorian as well as determining the distinguished top 10 percent of the graduating class.

• Approved an amendment to the FYE13 budget to allow for the carryover of federal funds. Mickey Daughtry, CFO, said the amendment reallocated carryover funds and made adjustments in the federal funding allocations for the remainder of the fiscal year.

• Accepted the financial report. Sales tax revenues for February were $205,849, a decrease of 4.6 percent from the prior year. Utility costs for Dec. 10, 2012, through Jan. 10, 2013, were $36,797, up 33 percent from the prior year. And the surplus cafeteria equipment from Charles Henderson High School was sold for $4,651.

• Heard a report from Hicks that bids for the Charles Henderson Middle School renovation project should be opened by April 16.