Williston’s New Public School District 8 School Board accepted the resignation of its Stony Creek’s principal on Tuesday.

Chad Abel submitted his resignation to superintendent Greg McNary and the board on May 4, making it effective as of that date. His letter states the resignation is for personal reasons.

In a phone interview Wednesday, McNary said Abel had planned for his position with the district to be temporary. Abel began as principal at the end of January, shortly after he’d graduated from college, McNary said.

Abel is from South Dakota and plans to head back home, McNary said. The board approved advertising for the position and McNary hopes to do interviews in early June so he’ll have candidate names to bring to the board for its June 9 meeting for a vote.

The board also approved the purchase of a modular building from Hatton to replace the damaged facility at Stony Creek Elementary. The original facility was damaged by a fire on March 24. The new building cost $15,000 and is slightly bigger than the damaged building, McNary said. It can be picked up on June 20, he said.

In a related matter, the board approved paying Double K Homes Inc. of Williston $4,600 to dismantle the damaged Stony Creek building and haul it away. Double K is scheduled to begin the work Friday once school is out, McNary said.

Meanwhile, the board did a walk through of Round Prairie School as part of its meeting. The school is in good shape overall, but it does have carpets that need to be replaced because they’re bunched up and the exterior needs some touching up with paint, McNary said.

He was pleased there weren’t more problems, considering the harsh winter the area endured.

“It’s structurally sound,” he said.

The board plans to do a walk through of the rest of the schools in the district the morning of May 23.