LINDEN – The Linden Board of Education will soon begin the search for its next Superintendent of Education.

Linden BOE attorney Alex Braswell said the board and Dr. Tyrone Smith have “entered into an agreement to separate their relationship.”

Braswell declined to release the details of the agreement as both sides continue to work toward separation.

Smith will not even complete a full two years of his three year contract at the helm of Linden Schools. He was hired in July 2010 to replace then-retiring Scott Collier for an annual salary of $110,000. Smith also served as principal of Linden Elementary School.

Smith was previously the director of The Opportunity Academy at Riggins Alternative School in Birmingham.

Tensions in Linden reached their boiling point when Smith verbally confronted four of the five members of the Board of Education at their March meeting. Smith was upset at a motion that would ask the Alabama State Department of Education to intervene and investigate financial and academic affairs in the Linden City School System.

During a rant that lasted nearly 30 minutes, Smith railed against board member Dr. Bobby Hopper, Linden High principal Tim Thurman and then-LCS CFO LaKendra Raby.

At the conclusion of the tirade, which prompted LPD Police Chief Scott McClure to respond to the meeting room, Smith demanded a buyout of the final year of his contract.

“It just got a little heated. Dr. Smith did not want them to pass a resolution,” McClure told the Demopolis Times after the meeting. “It just got a little heated, so they asked me to come down there.”