Marysville School Board member asked to resign over e-mail

To the wild cheers of a packed house, four members of the Marysville School Board voted Monday night to request the resignation of the fifth member, Michael Kundu.

Kundu came under fire for a June 3 e-mail that suggested different races have different brains sizes and intellectual capacities.

It was sent to other members of the board after a discussion about how to bridge the achievement gap among different ethnic groups.

In Maryland for his job with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Kundu missed the meeting.

After the vote, board member Chris Nation said Kundu's remarks were "truly not representative of the board."

The board believes every child can succeed, he said.

Nearly all seats at the meeting were filled, mostly with citizens wanting to voice opinions before the board voted.

Calista Phair, wearing a tiara and a "Miss Black Washington USA 2010" sash, was among the first to speak.

"How dare you insult my race," Phair said, listing achievements by various black individuals. "That doesn't sound like any brain infractions to me," she said to applause.

Many had signs urging Kundu's resignation.

In an e-mail interview with The Seattle Times on Friday, Kundu said he was still deciding whether to resign. He couldn't be reached Monday.

The meeting came one week after representatives from the NAACP, the Hispanic Commission and the Tulalip Tribes asked Kundu to quit the School Board.

And last week, nearly a dozen state representatives signed a letter chastising him and suggesting he apologize.

"I thought it [the e-mail] was hogwash," said Thelma Jackson, president of the Washington Alliance of Black School Educators.

"In this day and age, it is uncouth and uncalled for, especially for an elected official who took an oath of office to work on behalf of all children."

If Kundu refuses to resign, Mel Sheldon, chairman for the Tulalip Tribes, has said he will initiate a recall, the only way to force an elected official out of office.

Carly Flandro: 206-464-2108 or cflandro@seattletimes.com