A Prior Lake-Savage school board member whose election prompted then-superintendent Tom Westerhaus to resign is now stepping down himself.

In a letter of resignation reviewed by the school board Monday night, Chris Lind said he is moving out of state. His term runs through Dec. 31.

The board plans to appoint someone to serve in Lind's place until the end of the year. In the Nov. 2 election, voters will decide who will fill the seat for the next four years.

Lind's letter said he will be teaching sixth grade at a private school in Williston, N.D. Reached by phone, he declined to comment further, but the Prior Lake American reported that he will work at Trinity Christian School. "I'm looking forward to being completely honest with my faith and integrating the Bible in all classes," he told that newspaper.

Lind was elected to the school board in 2007, a few months after the board fired him from his job as a campus supervisor at Prior Lake High School. His election led Westerhaus, who had recommended firing Lind, to announce that he would leave the district at the end of that school year. Westerhaus said at the time that he couldn't work for someone under those circumstances.

Westerhaus took a job as superintendent of the River Falls School District in Wisconsin.

When voting to fire Lind, the board detailed a pattern of increasing discipline against him, saying that he spoke to students on campus about their sexual orientation and that one student overheard him telling another that it was "National Pick-On-Lesbians Day." The district warned him to keep appropriate boundaries with students, separating the roles of supervisor and friend.

At the time, Lind said he was told by district officials that he couldn't talk to current or former students, even off campus, about values such as abstinence.

SARAH LEMAGIE