Kou Lee. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Most members of the Green Bay Area Public School District’s school board are staying quiet about the resignation of former trustee Kou Lee, but one member is speaking out.
Lee resigned from the board last Thursday after the Green Bay Press-Gazette published an article detailing an investigation which appeared to reveal Lee campaigned for the seat using an address he didn’t live at.
The district has not provided an official reason for Lee’s abrupt resignation, but fellow school board trustee Alex Mineau believes the decision was warranted.
“I’m glad that he chose to resign immediately,” Mineau said. “I think it seemed pretty clear cut. The evidence is very strong and I’m glad that… he made the quick — and what I think is the right — decision, so that we can all move forward.
Mineau was elected to the school district’s board just last month in the April 1 election, after losing to Lee in the April 2024 election. Mineau said as a candidate, he had his suspicions that Lee’s address was inaccurate, but he chose not to file a complaint.
“There was enough publicly available evidence, in my opinion, when I was researching other candidates that I was competing against when I had to run, that it definitely was a huge question mark for me,” Mineau said.
Mineau is disappointed with what happened, believing Lee’s resignation probably isn’t enough. He said there are still a lot of unanswered questions.
In a May 8 Facebook post, the Republican Party of Brown County announced they submitted a formal complaint of Lee to the Brown County District Attorney over residency fraud. Their complaint came after the Green Bay Press-Gazette reported that Lee’s listed campaign address didn’t match his place of residence.
According to Wisconsin Legislature statute 120.06:
School board members elected to a school board in an election under s. 117.22 shall reside in the territory of the school district created by the reorganization.
The school board has 60 days to appoint a replacement for Lee. The seat will then be filled through the spring election in 2026.
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