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Navasota Superintendent Jennings Teel said Wednesday that he was the lone finalist for a post at another Texas school district and planned to accept the position.
The offer won't be official until Breckenridge schools board members announce their choice for superintendent at a meeting Thursday.
"I have verbally committed to go, and I feel very confident it's all going to fall in place," Teel said.
Breckenridge school board members on Friday and Saturday interviewed five candidates who had been identified by an independent consulting company, officials with that district said. Teel said they offered him the job soon after.
The Breckenridge school district, which is west of Fort Worth, has fewer students than the Navasota school district.
Once the decision is announced Thursday, Breckenridge is required to wait 21 days before offering Teel the position. Breckenridge schools Business Manager James Marrs said a special board meeting was set for July 2 to offer the position to the candidate.
Teel said the move would allow him and his wife to be closer to family.
Navasota school board President John Price said the board couldn't discuss how it would replace Teel until an official announcement had been made.
"We're not looking forward to going through this process. We've made good progress, we think, in the last two years," Price said, referring to his years on the board. "We've got good things going on in Navasota."
Both Price and Navasota Mayor and Education Foundation board member Bert Miller said they were pleased with Teel's performance.
Miller pointed to the district's scores on state tests and the new facilities built during Teel's tenure as evidence of good leadership.
"We sure hate to see him go, but people improve themselves and find other things," Miller said. "We just hope we can find someone who can pick up where he left off."
Preliminary scores on state tests show that Navasota schools improved considerably over last year.
Teel said the district and its schools probably would receive an academically acceptable rating and that he expected both elementary schools to be designated as exemplary, the state's highest rating.
The Texas Education Agency will release final accountability ratings in August.
Teel worked as superintendent of the Mason schools before moving to Navasota as assistant superintendent six years ago.
Teel said it was an "emotional" decision for him and his wife to leave the district. Teel, 51, said he had planned to retire from Navasota at the end of next year.
Breckenridge is "the perfect thing," Teel said.
"This has nothing to do with money, and nobody's running me out of town," he said.
