SCARBOROUGH — Superintendent of Schools George Entwistle III on Thursday announced his resignation and retirement from public education.

Entwistle, in a letter delivered to the School Board at its Dec. 3 meeting, said his resignation will take effect June 30, 2016.

“It is with some mixed emotions that I advise you … that it is my intent to retire from Scarborough Public Schools and from public K-12 education effective at the end of the 2015-2016 school year,” Entwistle, 61, wrote.

He said his reason for making the announcement at this time was a “deliberate effort to support the Board of Education in getting the very earliest start” in a search for a new superintendent.

Entwistle, a Cape Elizabeth native, has been Scarborough’s school chief since 2011. He was previously superintendent of the Falmouth School Department, assistant superintendent in School Administrative District 28 in Camden, and superintendent of Belmont Public Schools in Massachusetts. Last December, he was a candidate and unsuccessful finalist for the superintendent’s job in Lexington, Massachusetts.

“It is my belief that this superintendent opportunity in Scarborough, Maine will attract a strong and capable leader who can continue and advance the important work of rebuilding the Scarborough Schools,” Entwistle told the board, “so that over the next five years, they will take their rightful place as one of the top performing public schools in New England.”

Entwistle