The Buffalo Board of Education on Thursday demanded that Carl Paladino resign from his post on the board after making racist comments about President and Michelle Obama last week. If he refuses to step down, the board will ask the state education commissioner to remove him, it said in a resolution.

The resolution — read aloud in a raucous room that exploded in applause when Mr. Paladino’s critics spoke, and in jeers at a board member who called for forgiveness and an apology — passed, 6 to 2. Mr. Paladino was not present.

“Words matter, Mr. Paladino,” said Barbara Seals Nevergold, the president of the board.

The words in question came in response to a survey about hopes for 2017, sent to members of the Buffalo community by Artvoice, a local weekly newspaper.

In it, Mr. Paladino said he wished Mr. Obama would die of mad cow disease. He also wished Ms. Obama would “return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla.” Mr. Paladino, a wealthy builder and political ally of President-elect Donald J. Trump, ran for governor in 2010 as the Republican nominee.