Glenn Bemis has resigned as the president of the Quincy School Board after serving in that position for less than two months, according to a press release issued this morning by the Quincy School District. Vice president Melvin “Bud” Niekamp is Bemis’ replacement, and he says he won’t step down from his position despite a request Monday morning from Bemis to do so.

Bemis and Quincy Superintendent Lonny Lemon said that Niekamp’s position as vice president is now vacant, and that a special School Board meeting will be held this week to address the vacancy. The earliest that meeting can be held is Thursday because any School Board meeting must be posted 48 hours in advance.

Bemis, who was elected president of the School Board at a special meeting on April 30, said he resigned on Friday and that he made his decision Thursday night. He told The Herald-Whig that his resignation is the result of several weeks of reflection. He made no other comment this morning.

However, Bemis said in his resignation letter that he recommended former president Tom Dickerson to take his place, even though Niekamp is the vice president of the School Board.

“I believe it is critical at this time for the Board of Education, the district staff and the citizens of our community to come together and address the huge challenges facing our school district,” Bemis said in the press release.

“After giving careful thought, it is my opinion that Tom Dickerson has the experience and talent to make this happen more effectively than I can. ... I urge all members of the Board of Education to take whatever steps are necessary to make Tom president as soon as possible. I am willing to serve in any capacity other than president.”

Niekamp was elected vice president by a 6-0 vote, with Curtis Lovelace abstaining, at the same meeting that Bemis was named president.

When contacted this morning, Niekamp said he believes he has the right to be elevated to the president’s position.

“I’m next in line to be president of the board. That’s the way I’m looking at it,” he said. “When John Kennedy got bumped off way back in 1963, the vice president took over as president. So I don’t see no difference right here.”

Niekamp said he has no intention of stepping down from the board’s top leadership position.

“It’s my call, and I’ll be the president if everything works out, because I’m not going to step down as vice president,” he said. “Glenn Bemis asked me to, and I told him no.”
Dickerson, who had been president of the school board since 2005, said he would serve if he were elected president again. He also said he supports Bemis’s decision.

“The board will get together and have a special meeting to occur in the next few days and discuss what we think is the right thing to do,” he said. “Obviously, Mr. Niekamp has decisions to make and the board has decisions to make. We’ll take this a step at a time.”

Niekamp said he has no intention of following Bemis’ suggestion that the board support Dickerson as president. Making Dickerson president “would be business as usual,” he said.

“We can’t afford another eight years of Tom Dickerson,” Niekamp said. “Maybe some of the other board members were happy with Tom Dickerson, but I sure wasn’t. And evidently the people aren’t happy with him either. That’s why we need a change, and I thought we had a change. So I’m really disappointed. I was hoping we had a conservative board. That’s what the people want right now. They don’t want business as usual.”

When told that school officials were talking about calling a special meeting to discuss the board’s leadership position, Niekamp said: “They have to go through the president of the board to have a special meeting, and they haven’t contacted me yet.”

Bemis was elected in April 2007 to the School Board for the first time.

Niekamp has served on the School Board since 1989 and was elected to the County Board in 1992. The self-employed owner of Bud’s Speed and Machine Shop was the top vote-getter in the April School Board election.

“I think Glenn is at peace,” Superintendent Lonny Lemon said.

Niekamp’s status on the board has been questioned of late. He recently learned that his status is considered a violation of a longstanding state statute in the opinion of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan. The board learned just before its May meeting that she gave her opinion on a ruling that precludes officials from serving simultaneously on a school board and county board in a county with more than 40,000 residents.

“It’s just an opinion, it’s not the law,” Niekamp said after that meeting. “I’ve been doing this for 17 years, and I’m not dropping off the board. I had 6,046 people vote for me, and there’s going to be a lot of upset people if they try to remove me.”

Niekamp said in April that if he were faced with having to choose between the two boards, he would step down from the School Board.

Niekamp asked the board during its June meeting to approve a forensic audit of the district’s finances dating to the 2001-02 fiscal year. He also asked the board to replace Schmiedeskamp Robertson Neu and Mitchell, the firm providing the district’s legal services.

Bemis said after that meeting the motions caught the board by surprise. Niekamp made the motions moments after the board had voted to go into executive session. Niekamp was told to go through proper channels, to discuss his concerns with the board president, and to have his motions posted on the agenda 48 hours in advance, as required by law.

“That’s not the spot for bringing that up,” Bemis said after the meeting.

Edward Husar of The Herald-Whig Staff also contributed to this story.

—hwagner@whig.com/221-3374