Marlon Gayle is no longer the principal of Colony Oak Elementary School in Ripon.

Parents said Saturday they were originally told he was out of the office last week attending a conference before a letter went out to their homes from the district office alerting them that he would not be returning to the campus.

It was unclear whether he had resigned or was asked to leave before his year-to-year contract would have been completed at the end of the current school year.

Gayle was welcomed to Ripon by the school board at their June 10 meeting last year to replace former Colony Oak Principal Amie Carter who had accepted a K-8 principal position in Marin County. 

In the previous three years before coming to Ripon, he had served as the assistant principal at Bear Creek High School in Stockton and has taught World History, English, Reading and Geography in the Lodi Unified School District.

Gayle has a doctorate in Education Administration from the University of the Pacific and has single subject teaching credentials to teach social studies along with project based learning, gifted and talented students’ instruction, multi-cultural education and afterschool programs.

Gayle’s replacement as principal is Jesse Calvo who currently oversees a program at the district office on Acacia Avenue.