Superintendent Rita Bishop was in tears in her office around 2:30 Friday afternoon.

"I don't normally do this," Bishop said, saying she's not a crier. "This was one of the most difficult decisions that I've had to make."

Bishop was gearing up for a meeting with staff to tell them she was leaving the School District of Lancaster.

The Roanoke City School District in Virginia announced Friday afternoon that Bishop will become its new superintendent. Her last day in Lancaster is Aug. 1.

The announcement was unexpected.

Bishop has her reasons, including that she is returning to some challenges in a district where she formerly worked and to a city where her husband still lives. She also believes the climate here is not good for her work, due to the loss of a key school board member.

She promised to explain more in a letter to the public, to be released in 10 days.

Bishop, 63, was the associate superintendent of instruction for 10 years in Roanoke prior to coming to Lancaster.

"I have a great affection for Roanoke," Bishop said.

Her 27-year-old son, Gordon, graduated from Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke in 1996. Her husband, Lewis, never moved to Lancaster, but instead stayed in their Roanoke home.

He wore down plenty of tires traveling to Lancaster to visit, Bishop said.

But there have been other forces at work, Bishop said, making it easier for her to leave.

School Board member Veronica Urdaneta, who works for the state, has been found in violation of the federal Hatch Act. She is withdrawing from the November election.

"As the chair of the education committee, Dr. Urdaneta has been my partner for three years," Bishop said.

Bishop said that Urdaneta would never intentionally break the law and that there is "a certain mean factor surrounding all of this.

"All anyone had to do was just tell her, and she would have handled it."

Instead someone reported her.

Bishop feels, too, that she can do some good in Roanoke. She feels it's a new challenge.

Roanoke City School District and the School District of Lancaster have much in common.

Roanoke's poverty rate is 66 percent, and the city school district's is 75 percent. Its enrollment is 12,631. Lancaster's is more than 11,000.

Roanoke has also been hit with turmoil in recent years resulting in a high teacher turnover rate, low test scores and low graduation rates.

"I think my talent may rest in turning things around that are not going well," Bishop said.

When Bishop came to Lancaster, she said she did so because she wanted to run her own district.

She inherited a mess.

The former superintendent Ricardo Curry (now known by the last name of Burns) had hired friends and relatives as consultants, who did little or no work and received kickbacks. He was sentenced to federal prison for two years for fraud.

The district had a deficit of $3.4 million and had lost more than 100 teachers. And it was in trouble for sloppy record keeping.

So Bishop vowed to clean it up.

She hired Curt Baker, the chief financial officer.

School District of Lancaster now has a $1.7 million surplus. The district's record-keeping has improved.

Bishop also created the Phoenix Academy, a drop-out prevention school for at-risk students.

The districtwide reading curriculum is now in place. There are science and reading books.

"We still don't have enough books, but we are getting them," Bishop said.

Teacher retention is better, too. This year, the district lost 38 teachers from a staff of more than 900.

But she leaves, too, at a crucial time. The contract with the Lancaster Education Association, the teacher's union, has not been settled. The district is embarking on a $150 million renovation project.

And, there's a chance that Baker might not stay. He declined to say Friday what his plans are.

However, Bishop said that it is likely the Roanoke School District will make Baker an offer to come to Virginia.

Roanoke's Board President David Carson said that their finance director Ken Mundy is retiring this year.

Carson said that among the candidates, Bishop was the right one because she knows and loves Roanoke, and she's not coming with the intention of leaving.

Bishop leaves Lancaster with a salary of $167,465 and three years into a five-year contract, which she is allowed to break. Her contract in Roanoke has not been made public yet.

Bishop said she began "entertaining the possibility" of leaving Lancaster in May, around the same time Roanoke's superintendent was let out of his contract.

The rumor mill has been swirling for weeks in Roanoke that Bishop was a top candidate, said Dawn Rees-Blakeman, president of the Roanoke Education Association.

She is hopeful that Bishop will move her district in the right direction.

But in the meantime, Bishop's departure leaves Lancaster without a superintendent just a few months before school starts.

The board will probably search for an interim superintendent, board president Patrick Snyder said.

Snyder said he is sad to see Bishop go, but is focusing on what he needs to do for the school district.

He's worried the district is going to lose ground.

Lancaster is miles ahead of where it was three years ago, he said, thanks to her leadership.

Urdaneta said, "It is going to be really hard to go back on track."

Parent Sandy Rosario, who is a big fan of Bishop, is sad.

"It's such a huge loss to us," she said.

She hopes Bishop's replacement will keep up the improvements that the superintendent set in motion, "because we cannot afford to have someone come in here and turn this district upside down."

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