The director of the Lab Band Program Association, targeted by an investigation into financial irregularities, has cut ties with the organization he founded.

In a resignation letter obtained by The World on Wednesday, Greg Young apologized to his students and their parents for his behavior, though he didn’t specify what he did.

“My actions showed total lack of respect for everything I have tried to teach your kids, and I will have to live with that regret for the rest of my life,” he wrote.

Young guided the well-regarded youth music group for 16 years until this summer, when the board of directors put him on leave after discrepancies were found in the organization’s bookkeeping.

Ray Sanford, Lab Band president, said it was hard to see Young go, despite the group leadership’s concern about the band’s finances.

“We’re all torn up,” he said. “The fact is the man is a musical genius. However, he is not a financial genius.”

Sanford said the organization is continuing its investigation of its financial records. It also is forming a selection committee to find a new director and plans to hire an outside firm to audit the nonprofit.

“We are trying to get away from shotgun decisions,” Sanford said. “We want to be as organized and responsible as we can in this situation.”

In the interim, the group plans to bring in guest directors to lead the bands at festivals in Oakland, Florence, Medford and Sun Valley, Idaho, over the next two months. Sanford said he hopes to have a new director in place by the end of the year or the start of 2009.

The organization’s members were planning a vote at the next board meeting, ostensibly to decide whether to keep Young. In his resignation letter, Young said he didn’t want to force such a decision on his charges or their parents.

“If you vote to keep me, the ones that want me out will pull their kids out. If you vote to remove me, the ones that want me to stay will pull their kids out,” he wrote. “By voting, it has created a no win situation for the kids.”

Young’s resignation was formally accepted by the Lab Band’s executive board, which consists of Sanford, Vice President Mark Daily, Secretary Laura Sanford, Treasurer Merlin Meade and Steve Langenstein, the band’s manager.