LTCC to interview president candidates in August

By Kathryn Reed

Lake Tahoe Community College is hoping one of the handful of people expected to be interviewed Aug. 11 for the job of interim president will be able to start by Sept. 1.

Susan Middleton, vice president of Academic Affairs and Student Services, has been the acting president since Paul Killpatrick left earlier this month. She plans to retire Aug. 31. She has told the board she would stay on longer if need be.

The college board is having a retreat Aug. 6 at 8:30am in the boardroom. Part of the session is to hash out what the five want in an interim president. It has not been decided how long that person would be at the helm of South Lake Tahoe’s two-year institution. Some believe it would better to have a permanent person in place by January, others believe waiting to hire after the first of the year would be best. The board will likely make that decision in September.

About 18 people applied for the interim job. It’s not known if any local candidates are in the mix.

The interviewees will go through a dual process, with the board members in one room interviewing someone and another candidate being questioned by a committee of classified-faculty-administrators. Both groups will grill each candidate.

The board will likely go into closed session that day to deliberate, assess what the other panel thought of the candidates and ideally come up with a finalist. Background checks would then begin, with a special meeting being called for the official vote and announcement.

A month-to-month contract will be offered the person. Usually it is people with past presidential experience who are looking for this type of contract work.

Interviews to replace Diane Rosner, who retired this summer as dean of Instruction and Social Sciences, will be Aug. 17. The person is expected to be hired on an interim basis.