EVERETT — Leaders of Everett Community College have begun the process of finding a successor to retiring president David Beyer.
The Board of Trustees intends to hire a search firm to recruit potential candidates. Beyer plans to step down next June.
“It is always hard to replace an outstanding leader. We want to do this right,” said board president Mike Deller. “There are some really good candidates in this country, and we plan to land one.”
A request for bids from search firms went out Monday, and interested companies must respond by Oct. 12. Finalists would be interviewed the week of Oct. 22.
The board did not specify a sum of money for the services. That would be decided later, Deller said.
As part of the contract with a search firm, a timeline would be drawn up for the submission of names to the board. Deller said the goal is to hire a successor before Beyer’s planned retirement at the end of the school’s academic year.
“It is always nice to not have a gap between leaders,” Deller said. “But if there is a need for someone to serve in the interim, so be it.”
Beyer, 69, is in his 13th year at the helm, the longest tenure of any president in Everett Community College’s history. He was working as a consultant for Boise State University in Idaho when he was hired in 2006 to become the 15th president of Everett Community College.
In a higher education career spanning four decades, Beyer has also served as interim president at Wenatchee Valley College and at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington. He also was president at Umpqua Community College in Oregon and at Flathead Community College in Kalispell, Montana.
In the meantime, the board will soon decide where to build its new Learning Resource Center, which would include its library, study spaces, tutoring center and other learning support programs.
Members of the college administration, including Beyer, propose constructing it in the college plaza on the east side of Broadway. But some faculty, staff and students say it should remain on the main campus.
The board put off a decision in the spring to gather more public input and to visit other community colleges to look at their library locations. The trustees are now scheduled to decide that issue at 5 p.m. Oct. 15.
Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@herald net.com. Twitter: @dospueblos.
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