Can school board reduce duties and powers of president?

(Quincy, Ill.)  Quincy Public School Board President Bud Niekamp has until Wednesday to decide if he will resign from the board or face a drastic reduction of his powers as board president.

The other six school board members gave Niekamp a letter on Friday saying if he does not resign, they will vote to reduce his powers and duties to only those a school board president has under Illinois state law.

We did some checking into this with the Illinois State Board of Education for this KHQA FactFinder Report.

The Illinois State Board of Education confirmed a school board can reduce the powers of the school board president.

The president has some powers granted to him by state law.

Any powers beyond that are granted by the local school board.

Therefore, those extra powers can be taken away.

We spoke with the school district attorney Dennis Gorman about what duties Niekamp would still have.

Those are:

Preside at all meetings;

Serve as chairperson of the Education Officers Electoral Board which hears challenges to School Board Candidate nominating petitions;

Sign official District documents  requiring the President's signature, including Board minutes and Certificate of Tax Levy;

Review appeals of record access requests that were denied;

Call special meetings of the Board;

Ensure that a quorum of the Board is physically present at all Board meetings.

We also confirmed these duties would remain with the Illinois State Board of Education.

Duties that would be removed:

Make all Board committee appointments;

Be permitted to attend and observie any meeting of a Board committee;

Represent the Board on other boards or agencies;

Administer the oath of office to new Board members;

Serve as the Board's official spokesperson to the media.

The board's agenda for its meeting on Wednesday night lists procedures in case Niekamp resigns.

They include electing him to fill the vacant seat on the board, then electing a new vice-president.

Current vice president Tom Dickerson would move up to president.