HILLSBOROUGH - An Orange County school board member charged in November with driving under the influence of alcohol told his board colleagues several weeks ago about the incident.

But so far, Ted Triebel, 67, accused of the misdemeanor, has offered few words for the public.

"Yes I was involved with a single-car accident on Nov. 5," Triebel has said. "Yes I was charged with DUI, which I regret."

Triebel, reached Friday at his Rougemont home, declined to discuss the incident beyond his statement.

He is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 24.

According to a citation issued by N.C. State Highway Patrol trooper M.S. Melvin, Triebel was involved in a single-car accident along Guess Road in northeastern Orange County on Nov. 5 while driving his 1995 Honda.

Although the trooper said he smelled alcohol on Triebel, he did not do a breath test, but instead had blood drawn at Duke Hospital for testing at the SBI labs.

Stephen Halkiotis, Orange County school board chairman, said the DUI charge could divert attention from the tasks at hand.

"Anything of this nature detracts from us focusing on our work about children," Halkiotis said. "When you're an elected official and something like this happens to you it raises some issues that you have to deal with. Our focus is supposed to be on children."

This is not the first time in recent years, according to Halkiotis, that the Orange County school board has been distracted by troubling business.

Dennis Whitling, a former Orange County school board member, resigned in February 2008 after being arrested by Durham police and charged with with embezzlement in excess of $100,000, obtaining property by false pretense, corporate malfeasance and obstruction of justice. He pleaded guilty to the charges this past August and is on probation.

Controversy swirled for months around Keith Cook, a former school board member, after he was accused of plagiarizing a commencement speech he gave at Orange High School's commencement in 2004.

Now the board is wrestling with how to handle the misdemeanor charge against Triebel.

The school board has no recall process, according to Halkiotis.

Cook stayed on the board for nearly six months after the plagiarism scandal until he failed to win re-election.

"Everybody deserves their day in court," Halkiotis said. "This is going to be a difficult time for us. Human beings are human beings. We've just got to stay focused on children."