CANAAN — Jody Viereck will no longer serve as the principal of Canaan Elementary School, according to an announcement from the Mascoma Valley Regional School District on Thursday. 

Superintendent Amanda Isabelle said she received an email from Viereck on Wednesday morning, in which she noted that due to some changes in her personal life, it had become difficult to move to New Hampshire from Glassboro, N.J., where she’s mostly recently worked as an adjunct professor and clinical practice supervisor at Rowan University.

“It was very unexpected, that I can absolutely say,” Isabelle said in a phone interview of Viereck’s sudden resignation. “We wanted to get notice out to our families. They’d been anticipating her arrival.”

Viereck was set to replace interim principal April Guinness, who has served as interim principal since last July following the departure of Leah Wheelan, who is now the principal of the Hanover Street School in Lebanon. 

Viereck had signed a one-year contract — that didn’t include a signing bonus — for a salary in the “mid-90,000s,” Isabelle said. Her hiring was made public in mid-April, and the contract was due to kick in on July 1.

“We thought we were well ahead in the hiring process,” Isabelle said. 

Now, the district will be starting over. A hiring committee made up of teachers, paraprofessionals and parents intends to conduct interviews in June, Isabelle said, “and then move forward with a candidate as soon as possible.”

The first day for teachers at the elementary school is Aug. 20.