HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. — Orange County's school board is expected to hear renewed calls for its chairman to resign after he did something that would leave a student with an F grade.

Keith Cook admits the graduation speech he gave at Orange High School was written by someone else. He claimed the words as his own.

Students caught similarly plagiarizing written work would receive a grade of zero and maybe a short-term suspension.

Cook issued apologies Saturday to the high school's graduates and to the community for not giving the speech he originally wrote but found to be too serious.

Cook has been trying to defuse the furor in advance of a school board meeting Monday. His plagiarism was mentioned by news outlets nationwide, including

USA Today

and ABC's "Good Morning America."

The Orange County school board will discuss Cook's plagiarism when it meets Monday night.