A top administrator at the English Montreal School Board is resigning at the end of April.

Angelo Marino, the board's deputy director general and director of financial services, is considered highly ethical and competent by many employees who are sad to see him go.

He recently handed in his letter of resignation to Ann Marie Matheson, the board's director general.

EMSB spokesperson Mike Cohen said Marino holds a very important job as director of finance and has served with the board on two non-consecutive occasions.

His resignation follows recently reported problems between the school board administrators and Chair Angela Mancini and Vice-Chair Sylvia Lo Bianco.

In November, a dozen senior EMSB administrators sent a letter to the council of commissioners that the Chair and the Vice-Chair were micromanaging the board.

The letter said the "specific roles and responsibilities of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman must be defined."

Administrators were also upset that commissioners attempted to appoint one of Lo Bianco's relatives to the position of assistant director of school organization.

That relative later withdrew his application.

After the contents of the letter were made public, senior managers said they regretted the "media frenzy" that it produced, saying it distracted from the real issues.

On Monday most of the board commissioners along with senior administrators attended a meeting presided over by independent conflict management practitioner Michel Nadeau in an attempt to work out their disagreements. Cohen called the meeting friendly and positive and said it was the first of several planned meetings.

The meetings were arranged by Mancini as the board attempts to mend a climate that has seen increasing mistrust and tension between the board and administrators over respective roles in recent months. 

UPAC is investigating the board, and it is being audited, for irregularities in its international vocational school program.

The next public board meeting is on Wednesday. Marino's resignation will be on the agenda.