Martha’s Vineyard public schools superintendent Richard M. Smith will retire at the end of June, 2026.

Mr. Smith made the announcement at the all-Island school committee meeting on Thursday evening.

On Friday morning, he told the Gazette that he and his wife Melissa Smith, a teacher at the Oak Bluffs School, will return to their original home state of Virginia to help care for Ms. Smith’s aging parents.

“Personal needs and professional needs are difficult to manage,” said Mr. Smith, who has mixed feelings about leaving the Vineyard after nearly a quarter-century here.

“The right decision is to do what we’re doing, which is to go back down there and be part of the family,” he said.

The Smiths, who both hold master’s degrees in education from the University of Virginia, first came to Martha’s Vineyard on their honeymoon and fell in love with the Island.

After teaming up to send their resumes to all six public schools, the couple moved here in 2002. Mr. Smith took a counseling job at the Tisbury School and Ms. Smith began teaching in Oak Bluffs, where her husband later became principal after earning a second master's degree in administration. Mr. Smith also earned a doctorate in educational policy and planning.

In 2015, he was one of two finalists for the all-Island superintendency that went to Matthew D’Andrea, who soon appointed Mr. Smith as his assistant superintendent.

When Mr. D’Andrea announced in 2022 that he was returning to the mainland, the all-Island school committee voted to appoint Mr. Smith as acting superintendent while searching for a longer-term successor to Mr. D’Andrea.

Mr. Smith, however, declined to accept the job on an interim basis, leading the committee to unanimously approve a two-year contract that was subsequently renewed, again by unanimous vote.

The Smiths plan to keep their Oak Bluffs home, Mr. Smith told the Gazette.