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Beth Everitt will ask the Albuquerque Board of Education today to release her from her contract so she can take over in January as superintendent of the Aiken County Public Schools in South Carolina.

The Aiken Board of Education voted Tuesday night to hire Everitt, who has been Albuquerque Public Schools superintendent since 2003.

Everitt's Albuquerque contract runs through June 30, 2008, but it can be terminated earlier if the parties agree. Everitt had announced her resignation July 9.

The Albuquerque school board has a closed-door meeting at 3 p.m. today at which it is expected to discuss the contract and a possible interim superintendent.

The board is amid its superintendent search, and Everitt's successor is not scheduled to be named until March under the timeline adopted by the board.

Albuquerque board member Robert Lucero said he saw no problem with releasing Everitt early. An interim superintendent should be named by the board, he said. "We've done that before," he said.

Board member Marty Esquivel said Everitt told him she would work through the end of December. "The reality of her leaving just surfaced today," he said Tuesday. "I know she's dedicated to the district."

Everitt had promised to help with the transition to a new superintendent and still intends to do so, she said late Tuesday.

"I will never leave APS stranded," she said. However, she said she is excited to start her new job and will put her Albuquerque house on the market immediately.

"We'll pack up our two dogs and move to a rental house," she said. "I have annual leave that will take me through early April."

She expects her last day on the job in Albuquerque to be Dec. 21, the last day of the semester. "I need to be in my new office Jan. 2."

Everitt said last week the Aiken job was her first choice for a new superintendency. She'll be going home to the Carolinas. Her mother and sister live in North Carolina, Everitt's home state.

Details of Everitt's contract with the Aiken board will not be released until she is released from her Albuquerque contract, APS spokeswoman Monica Armenta dsid.

"Beth has to be respectful of both communities she is serving," Armenta said.

But Everitt said she will not earn as much in Aiken as she does in Albuquerque, $192,934 annually.

"I didn't expect to be," she said, "because the district has 25,000 students" compared with Albuquerque's 87,000.