At an emergency meeting held by the Metropolitan Community College board of governors Saturday morning, the board unanimously accepted the resignation of Fred Conley.
In June, a Federal agency banned Conley from taking part in federal contracts, saying he failed to disclose conflicts of interests while serving on the Omaha Housing Authority Board. The U.S. Department of Education had threatened to take away millions of dollars in student aid and funding from the school if Conley remained on the board.
The board had insisted to Conley to step down for weeks, in order to avoid losing even more funding. Conley however, who was the former chairman of the board, had resisted quitting the board, saying his presence would not cost the college valuable federal dollars.
But in efforts to keep the school from losing any more funding, Conley sent the board his resignation Friday morning, only a few days before the U.S. Department of Education's August 8th deadline for the school to show what it had done to remove Conley from the board.
Conley submitted his resignation with only two requests, that he end his time on the board September 29th and that the board excuse his absences from any future board events until then.
"The student aid with the department of education could be anywhere between $30 million dollars - it kind of ranges but that's the number we're looking at but that's why it's such a big deal for us to take care of the situation as soon as possible," Roger Garcia, Chair of the board told KMTV Friday.
