East Penn Board to Vote on Julian Stolz's Resignation

A vote on the resignation of East Penn School Director Julian Stolz is expected at Monday night’s school board meeting, according to the meeting agenda.

Stolz said two weeks ago on his blog "The Stolz Report" that he resigned, but the full board needs to act for it to become effective.

It is unclear if the school district received a formal letter of resignation, or if it even needs one. A printout of the resignation letter Stolz posted on his blog is the exhibit provided with the agenda for the Monday night vote on Monday night.

School Board President Charles Ballard told Patch via email on Friday:

“To the best of my knowledge:

1. Mr. Stolz has not submitted anything officially to the Board Secretary.
2. Mr. Stolz stated his intention to resign, 'effective immediately', on his blog.
3. I can't comment on anything I don't have.”

East Penn Superintendent of Schools Thomas L. Seidenberger answered “no comment” to a bevy of questions related to Stolz’s resignation, including questions regarding board procedure such as, “Does a board member have to tender his/her resignation in writing?”

Stolz’s online resignation came amid a flurry of media scrutiny caused by revelations about Stolz’s relationships with teens while a seated school board member–including by his own admission a romantic, but not sexual, relationship five years ago with a then-15-year-old Emmaus High School student.

Stolz, who was 20 at the time, says he broke off the relationship with the girl after four months. He began dating the girl again recently. He is now 25, she is 20, and Stolz describes her as the “love of his life.”

During the Oct. 14 school board meeting, several parents, residents and other interested parties addressed the board, demanding he step down from his post or that the board take action to remove him.

At the end of the meeting, Stolz said that he had no intention of stepping down, asserting that he had done nothing wrong. However, the next day he did an about-face, resigning his school board position in the blog post, listing as his chief reason a desire to protect his girlfriend from public scrutiny.

This is not the first time that East Penn residents have called for Stolz’s resignation, nor is it the first time that Stolz has tendered an “electronic” resignation.

Stolz tweeted a resignation on April 1 but it turned out to be an April Fool's joke. 

Later that spring, parents demanded Stolz's resignation because Stolz retweeted a comment by former South Carolina GOP Executive Director Todd Kincannon calling public schools "brain rotting" and saying he (Kincannon) pities the "proletariat for having to send their inferior crotchfruit to them."

Stolz is a graduate of Emmaus High School and has been on the East Penn School Board since 2007.

The East Penn School Board meets at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the District Administration Building.