Snider ready for president search as he moves from County Board, joins incumbent Sprague on JWCC Board

QUINCY — As the newest member of the John Wood Community College Board of Trustees, Kent Snider is anxious to get started on the panel’s newest and most pressing topic — the search for a new president.

“That’s not really something I was counting on,” Snider said with a laugh.

The news of Bryan Renfro’s resignation as president to take the job of chancellor at Eastern Iowa Community Colleges (EICC) was announced Tuesday afternoon about seven hours before the election polls closed.  

Snider, 70, and incumbent Andy Sprague, 57, who owns Sprague’s Kinderhook Lodge and Sprague Farms, were the top two vote-getters in Tuesday’s consolidated election for spots on the Board of Trustees. Snider, a long-time Adams County Board member who also served six years as chairman, collected 5,494 votes, while Sprague received 4,679. They will serve six-year terms.

Christopher Holtschlag, a special education co-teacher at Quincy High School, had 4,396 votes, and Elizabeth Cash, a paraeducator in the Unity school district, had 3,857.

Holtschlag outdistanced Sprague in Adams County, collecting 3,613 votes to 2,877 for Sprague. However, Sprague received 1,459 votes in Pike County, while Holtschlag had 491.

Snider, who owns and operates Ron Snider’s Auto Sales, believes his time on the Adams County Board and as board president of Quincy Community Theatre and Advocacy Network for Children will benefit the JWCC Board when it comes to finding Renfro’s replacement.

“All the boards and the committees that I’ve shared, I’ve hired a lot of people in my time,” he said. “I’ve got that experience, but this is not something that I was looking forward to, you know? Fortunately, Bryan’s there until July 1, so we’ve got a little time.”

Sprague followed the results from Tuesday’s election from the road while on vacation out west.

“We were excited to follow along as we could from a distance on the election results, and I had numerous friends giving me updates, for which I’m very grateful,” he said.

He said the Board of Trustees is ready to “work diligently” to bring in new leaders to the college with a shared vision of improving the quality of education.

“Dr. Renfro has been a fantastic leader for our college,” Sprague said. “We are very happy for him and are grateful for the collaborative and creative initiatives he has been a part of at JWCC.”

Snider said he was flattered to be the leading vote-getter.

“It makes you feel good,” he said. “It makes you feel like you you’ve done things right for the last 20 years on the County Board and that people believe in you. They see some of the things that you’ve done and can still accomplish.

“I still want to do something to give back to the community. I felt like the John Wood board is giving back. It’s helping kids, and it won’t be at the level of work that the County Board is.”

John Wood Community College serves 13 public school districts in nine West-Central Illinois counties — Adams, Brown, Hancock, Pike, Calhoun, Cass, Morgan, Scott and Schuyler.