The chairman of the board at CedarBridge Academy has been asked to step down, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

Leonard Santucci confirmed last night that Diallo Rabain, Minister of Education, had told him he wanted to replace him with a chairman of his own choice.

Dr Santucci said: “The Minister of Education has indicated a desire to hire a new chair and deputy chair, but he has also asked me if I would remain a member of the board.”

Dr Santucci said he was asked to quit in an e-mail sent on Sunday.

He added he was not aware of any reason why he would be asked to stand down.

Santucci confirmed he had written an affidavit backing former education commissioner Freddie Evans, who was fired in October and who has taken legal action against the Governor, Ministry of Education and the Public Service Commission.

Dr Evans’s lawyer Mark Diel said only the Governor could fire Dr Evans and only then inside his probation period, which had expired by the time he got official notice.

Dr Santucci, a former Bermuda College professor and United Bermuda Party senator, has been chairman of the board at CedarBridge since 2015.

He joined the school board in 2014 under Nalton Brangman, Minister for Education in the previous One Bermuda Alliance Government.

Mr Rabain last month gave “special thanks” to Dr Santucci in the House of Assembly.

He said Dr Santucci was “determined to make CedarBridge the Secondary school of first choice”.

Mr Rabain was speaking after the school’s successful re-accreditation by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.

The Ministry of Education did not respond to a request for comment last night.