Bristol Township Schools - Jamie Kravcak resigned his post as Bristol Township's school board president Monday, citing "personal reasons" and nothing more. Kravcak did not resign from the board.
"I would like to thank all the students and the teachers and the staff assistants who don't get thanked enough," he said.
The board then approved Vice President Danette Ziegelhofer as president and Sherri Champey as vice president.
Kravcak, a Democrat, has been on the board since January 2004 and was president since March 2004.
Kravcak drew massive attention to himself last fall when he belatedly admitted to ordering police dogs into Harry S Truman High School to quell a rumored race riot. The move elicited anger from the black community. Kravcak later apologized publicly and said he'd never do it again.
Recently, Kravcak has tried to push the board to hire the high school's football coach as the district's new chief of security. The recently created $50,000-a-year position has been considered costly and unnecessary by some residents.
But for the first time Monday night, the Bucks County Chapter of the NAACP urged the board to hire football coach Van Smith as security chief. Bucks chapter President John Jordan said some Truman High School teachers told him they were concerned for their safety and wanted a security chief in the district.
Jordan said the dog incident and rumors of a race riot would've been avoided with a security chief in place. He added that both Bristol Township's police chief and two administrators who were on a hiring committee recommended Smith for the job.
He said the fact that Smith is black has nothing to do with his recommendation.
"I would strongly suggest you make the motion to hire the head of security," Jordan said.
No motion was made, although the position is still in next school year's proposed budget.
Some board members, like Helen Cini, are against the security chief position, saying it's unnecessary. Others, like Ziegelhofer and Champey, have expressed concerns that the position could be too costly for the cash-strapped district.
Last month, the board's budget committee recommended that the board remove the position from the budget.
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