OAKLAND — Oakland Unified School District Superintendent Antwan Wilson is resigning his position to take a job leading the school system in Washington, D.C., the district announced Tuesday morning.

Wilson will leave the district this winter to take the helm in the Nation’s Capitol as Chancellor of District of Columbia’s Public Schools. The news of Wilson’s hire was first reported Monday night by NBC4.

A closed session board of education meeting is planned for later this month where details on a search for a permanent replacement and naming an Interim Superintendent will be addressed.

At the same time the Washington Post article by @emmersbrown posted Antwan Wilson sent us OUSD staff his parting letter. @OakTribNews pic.twitter.com/kPDIThF7Tg — Brooke Toczylowski (@BrookeTocz) November 22, 2016

“This is a bittersweet time for me. I love Oakland and feel great about the work accomplished during my tenure here,” said Superintendent Antwan Wilson in a statement. “I know that the incredible OUSD staff and BOE will continue the important work in progress. I am also excited to begin a new chapter in my career in which I will continue to dedicate myself to ensuring every student thrives.”

Board of Education president James Harris called Wilson’s resignation “a loss.”

“I am proud of what’s been accomplished under Antwan’s leadership and I am personally happy for Antwan,” Harris said in a statement. “This is a loss for us, but an excellent OUSD team is in place to continue the District’s work in service of Oakland’s children and families as we search for a new superintendent.”

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser bets that as an outsider, Wilson “will bring new ideas for addressing wide achievement gaps between the city’s needy and affluent children,” according to the Washington Post. The D.C. Council needs to confirm the nomination to make it official.

Wilson plans to leave his current role in February to be the next chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools, according to his resignation letter sent to Oakland Unified staff Monday night.

“Leading an equity agenda aimed at increasing student achievement and elevating academic social emotional learning in our nation’s capitol is more important now than ever because of the challenges our nation is facing,” Wilson wrote in the parting letter. “My work with you, the talented educators of Oakland, has prepared me for this new role.”

The Washington Post reported that Wilson will arrive at a time when the mayor and the D.C. school district are focused on improving futures for young black men, whose graduation rates and test scores are below city averages.

Wilson has served in his current position since July 2014. In addition, his supporters credit him with collaborating with partners across the city earned Oakland Unified national recognition for work on the Oakland Promise, a cradle-to-career initiative aimed at tripling the number of college graduates from Oakland within ten years, according to the district. And he fostered the district-wide implementation of an Oakland-grown teacher and leader evaluation system, as well as increased school-site autonomy for staffing decisions and innovation.

During his tenure, the district negotiated multi-year labor contracts for the first time since 2009 and providing salary increases for every labor union, the district said. Combined with the passage of Measure G1, the district’s Teacher Retention and Middle School Improvement Act, teachers will receive salary increases of over 17% in just three years, the board said.

Wilson also led efforts to prioritize central operational functions, most significantly completing all outstanding financial audits for the first time in over a decade and acquiring a top-tier credit rating for the first time in years, which the district says saved taxpayers millions and enabling new discretionary spending at the school level.

But at the same time, Wilson’s critics often railed against him, protesting against him at school board meetings last year for being “the face of new Jim Crow” as they argued he was trying to help charter schools at the expense of Oakland’s public schools.

They contended that the growth of charter schools in the district harmed black, Latino and special education students as they were left behind at public schools that must compete with charters for scarce public education dollars. They also accused him of trying to push special education students into mainstream classrooms.

He called the group’s use of the term Jim Crow “highly ironic” during an interview with this newspaper in 2015.

“My focus is education and being successful … and I’m not going to be deterred because individuals choose to come in and be rude and disrespectful,” he said, adding that he would not stoop to personal attacks against those who are attacking him. “I’m not going to get into diversion tactics, and I’m certainly not going to be deterred by people who continue to take advantage of people’s fears of what’s happening.”