A school principal recruited from interstate _ despite the protests of local teachers _ has quit after less than a year in the job.

Paul Erickson, 49, quit Darwin High School and returned to New South Wales.

The NT Education Department gave him a four-year contract, paying $130,712 a year.

It is understood he was given thousands of dollars in relocation expenses.

The Department paid a recruiting company $35,000 to recruit Mr Erickson.

Mr Erickson said he was quitting his job for a ``mixture of dissatisfaction with the Department of Education and some personal issues''.

In an e-mail to staff, he said his wife, Suzanne, was ``very unhappy'' with her teaching job at Nightcliff High School and wanted to go back to Sydney.

He said his father in NSW was not well.

``I had returned to Darwin, commencing my second year as principal on January 2 and again find myself frustrated and disappointed by the system, especially its parochialism,'' Mr Erickson said in his e-mail.

He said he had told department officials how nearly all the principals felt they had been ``disenfranchised by the directors, that communication is very poor and they are feeling a degree of exclusion from discussion and decision making''.

``Quality of life, professional satisfaction and feeling valued are more important to us than money or status and for this reason I have decided that I must reluctantly resign.''

John Dove, the Education Department's General Manager Schools (Darwin and Katherine), said no severance package was offered to Mr Erickson.

``Mr Erickson will only be paid his outstanding pro rata recreation leave for the time he was employed in the NT,'' Mr Dove said.

He said the department would not use the recruiting company again.

``We will always reserve the right to ensure that we have a good field from which to choose for the sake of NT students,'' he said.

Mr Dove said most of the professional issues Mr Erickson mentioned were ``comparatively minor''.

``Darwin city principals and all sections of Schools Division have been constantly looking for ways in which communications within the organisation can be improved.''

Mr Dove said of the 150 government schools in the NT, only seven principals had been recruited from interstate.

The Department said yesterday Jenny White _ Mr Erickson's assistant principal last year _ will be Darwin High's acting principal for the first school term of this year.

The principal's position will be advertised locally and interstate with a view to it being filled by the start of the second term.

Northern Territory News