McLemore not seated on Lake County Regional Board of School Trustees; ‘I just hope you all are ready for the fight I’m going to give’

An unusual Lake County Regional Board of School Trustees meeting Monday night featured confusion, a police presence and ultimately resulted in a trustee-elect not being sworn into one of three board vacancies despite receiving more than 43,000 votes as one of two candidates in the April election.

Clyde McLemore, a Zion resident who founded the Lake County Chapter of Black Lives Matter, arrived at the Regional Office of Education in Vernon Hills knowing he would likely leave disappointed.

McLemore had received correspondence from the Lake County state’s attorney’s office demanding that he resign as a trustee-elect and not take his seat in the weeks leading up to the meeting, alleging he is ineligible to be seated because he lives in the same congressional township as Julie Gonka, whose term expires in 2025 and has been on the board since 2007.

The Regional Board of School Trustees meets rarely, and when it does, it is typically to consider school district dissolvements, consolidations, annexations and opt-outs from educational cooperatives.

It had little business Monday aside from McLemore’s status and filling vacancies, other than brief discussion of a bill board members would like to see state legislators take up in Springfield.

“I wasn’t a write-in candidate; I did everything by the book.” McLemore told the board. “I spent my time knocking on doors, getting petitions signed.

“And then when I’m candidate-elect, I get this letter,” he continued. “They even pre-wrote a letter for me to resign. This is why we have low voter turnout. This is why Black and Brown people are scared to vote because, can we trust the system?”

After the board refused to swear in McLemore and heard his public comments, board President Alison Baker Packer, who has been on the board since 1992, encouraged McLemore to run in 2025.

The position is unpaid and comes with little glamour, but McLemore, who has previously run for his local school board, said he wants to bring diversity to the board, which he pointed out had all white members before Monday’s swearing in of new members.

“Look around you,” he said. “There’s no Black or Brown (people) on that board. But how many Black and Brown children do we govern here on the regional level? I can’t help who I am. I can’t take this off. I can’t choose to be Black, I just got lucky.”

Baker Packer said the board has previously had Black members, and it has “nothing to do with curriculum or personnel” in Lake County schools. It did appoint Renita Davis, a Black woman who said she resides in Avon Township, to fill one vacancy after an executive session.

“All we have to do with is decisions in Lake County regarding school property,” Baker Packer said.

McLemore shot back, “I understand that very well. That has a lot to do (with this), too. Look at Highland Park and then come to Zion. It’s a big difference.”

Assistant Lake County state’s attorney Karen Fox said she did not know why McLemore was allowed to be on the ballot if the state’s attorney’s office was of the position he was ineligible, and said that was a question for Lake County Clerk Anthony Vega.

“Congressional townships aren’t used for very much,” Fox said. “This is one of the things that it is used for.”

She explained that the state’s attorney’s office was informed by the Regional Office of Education that there was a sitting trustee in the seat McLemore was elected to, and that she believed Gonka may have informed the Regional Office of Education of that conflict.

Fox and John Christensen prepared the legal complaint, filed May 3 on behalf of State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart.

McLemore sent a response letter to the state’s attorney’s office in April to say he would not resign as trustee-elect. He said he was served with a complaint from the state’s attorney’s office by a police officer upon his arrival at Monday’s meeting.

The Lake County sheriff’s office maintained its presence throughout the meeting in an unusual move, which McLemore criticized.

“They had the sheriff there as if I was some kind of villain,” he said. “This is about the children. I’m in the community. Taxpayers’ money was spent for them to come and as soon as I get there, they want to serve me a paper (about the complaint). This looks bad on the state’s attorney’s office.”

Gonka asserted that both she and McLemore are residents of the Zion-Benton congressional township, one of 16 congressional townships used for Regional Board of School Trustees.

“I feel like I’ve been thrown under the bus here, and it had nothing to do with me. It’s the law,” Gonka said. “I didn’t file any complaint.”

Candidates for the board appear on each Lake County ballot, regardless of which townships have current board representation or candidates in the running. Lake County has 18 townships overall.

There was no way for voters to discern on the ballot that McLemore was running for a seat he would not be allowed to take. Voters were presented with two candidates, McLemore and Mitchell, and were instructed on the ballot to select two candidates.

Lake County Regional Superintendent Michael Karner said he also did believe that McLemore was eligible for the seat when he expressed interest in the role.

Vega previously told the News-Sun his office does not “weigh in on qualifications or the validity of signatures,” and that the burden to raise objections and ensure they are eligible for office is on the candidates.

“That’s what the objection period is for,” Vega said. “We accept petitions and we use the Illinois State Board of Elections candidate guide, and one of the very first items in that guide is retaining legal counsel to make sure you’re qualified for these positions you’re running for.”

Gonka said a similar situation in 2019 also caused confusion when she, Baker Packer and trustee Philip DeRuntz were up for reelection and another candidate from Baker Packer’s congressional township appeared to win a seat after garnering more votes than one of the incumbents.

She said candidates ultimately have the responsibility to ensure they are eligible, though she added, “They don’t make it easy.”

The board did not reach a decision on its remaining vacancy, a seat that remains open in part due to the board’s opinion on McLemore’s eligibility. It did swear in Lindenhurst resident James Mitchell Jr., who was elected in April, and appointed Davis.

Mitchell Munda, who said he lives in Antioch Township and Mary Morgan, who said she lives in Wauconda Township, also interviewed for trustee seats.

The board is awaiting clarification about whether Munda and Mitchell live in the same congressional township, similar to McLemore and Gonka.

As the interviews began inside executive session, McLemore and Fox debated his eligibility.

He told Fox near the end of their discussion, “I just hope you all are ready for the fight I’m going to give. They know I don’t sit down quiet.”