COLUMBUS — Ohio Superintendent Susan Tave Zelman announced her intention to resign Wednesday, three months after Gov. Ted Strickland proposed bringing the state Department of Education under his control.

Zelman has led the state’s primary and secondary education system for nine years. In February, Strickland surprised many in his State of the State address with his intention to seize control of the agency she oversaw.

Zelman said she will resign whenever a new superintendent starts and will work in an advisory role until December.

“Academic performance has improved measurably,” Zelman said Wednesday. “School funding has increased. And the Ohio Department of Education has been re-engineered to serve Ohio’s 600-plus school districts with a stronger customer-service focus. These are the successes we have achieved together.”

Strickland proposed placing the giant department, which he criticized as unwieldy and splintered, under an appointed education czar accountable to him. The move would reduce Zelman and the 19 elected and appointed members of the State Board of Education to more advisory roles.

Zelman, hired by the state school board and not the governor, has questioned Strickland’s plan. She said it would undermine the independence, transparency and continuity of public education in the state.

“Do you want to take a public agency and take it away from the public or do you want to give it to the governor, with gubernatorial control? We have to ask ourselves what is best for Ohio children,” Zelman was quoted at the time.

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