- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Yuba Community College District Board puts pause on chancellor recruitment
Following a lengthy discussion, the board approved a motion offered by Trustee Bill Roderick — whose coverage area includes Lake County — to direct Associate Vice Chancellor Jake Hurley to present an adjusted timeline to the board to extend the chancellor’s search six to 12 months.
That additional time, Roderick said, is to allow the district to deal with human resources and fiscal issues. He clarified that it isn’t restarting the process, but that the intention is, “We hit pause.”
Chancellor Douglas Houston left at the end of April, and in June the board appointed Dr. James Houpis interim chancellor, effective July 1.
Houpis’ contract calls for him to serve through June 30, 2022. That was to allow for the recruitment for a permanent chancellor. According to statements at Wednesday’s meeting, Houpis’ contract precludes him from applying for the job on a permanent basis.
Since he joined the district, Houpis has earned praise from classified staff and faculty for the way he has worked with them and addressed the district’s problems.
It’s a particularly challenging time for the district, which is facing dropping enrollment — exacerbated by the pandemic — and the accompanying financial challenges.
In October, the board received a report from the state’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, or FCMAT, that pointed to the potential for the district to face a “fiscal cliff” in the 2024-25 academic year should it not be able to increase enrollment across the district.
Board members raise concerns about timing
During public comment, before the discussion on the chancellor’s search, Jennifer Hanson, professor of economics at the college as well as a governing board member of the Lakeport Unified School District, encouraged the board to take its time selecting the next chancellor.
She recounted how Lakeport Unified had an interim superintendent for a year and a half. “I hope you don’t rush this search. It’s really important,” she said.
Hanson added, “Waiting is sometimes a very good thing. It worked well for us.”
The board also heard from search committee members Olga Nevarez and Marcia Stranix, both of whom felt the recruitment should move forward.
“We have a process that is set up that is thoughtful and timely,” said Nevarez, explaining that the district can always reopen the recruitment if it doesn’t find the right person.
Houpis, who attended the meeting via Zoom, recused himself from the chancellor’s search discussion.
Hurley said the board had asked for discussion of the process during a special board meeting on Oct. 27.
Trustee Jesse Ortiz, who supported continuing the search, said one of the concerns had been about the timeline. He asked if the timeline was doable, and Guy Lease of PPL Inc., the firm conducting the search, said it absolutely was.
Lease said the recruitment has been progressing right on schedule and was on track to open for applications on Nov. 15.
The district’s timeline includes two months to accept applications, with the deadline set for Jan. 14. The following week, PPL was scheduled to review applications for minimum qualifications, with a ranking summary due to be completed on Feb. 22.
The 23-member screening committee formed to be a part of the interview process would hold the first interviews in the middle of March, with the first board interviews with candidates at the start of April, in order to have a new chancellor in place by July 1.
Lease said that there had been an issue raised at the Oct. 27 meeting regarding time conflicts for the screening committee, but he said having time conflicts for such a large group isn’t unusual.
He said they’ve already begun conversations with people within California and from out of state who they think would be good candidates.
The next step was for the board to approve the position announcement, another item on the Wednesday night agenda.
If the board chose to stop, Lease said the firm would be ready to work with the district in the future. He said they didn’t see the timeline as being rushed or there being a need to stop.
Lease said now is the prime time for the recruitment process in order to get candidates looking to start a new job in July or August. He said they risked losing great candidates to other districts that get ahead of them.
Trustee Richard Teagarden, who chairs the steering committee, said they had already gone through a lengthy process and there was 100% participation from the committee. He recommended staying on track, adding the board could extend or revise the schedule in the future if necessary.
Two 500-pound gorillas
Roderick explained that two 500-pound gorillas — human resources issues that have been uncovered and are being cleaned up by Dr. Houpis and Hurley, and the FCMAT findings regarding the district’s financial position — are what brought the discussion forward.
He said it would be a disservice to bring in a new chancellor in the middle of the situation while, at the same time, losing the momentum that Houpis and Hurley have developed in working with staff and addressing the financial challenges.
Roderick said he wanted to give Houpis a chance to clean house and set up a new chancellor for long-term success.
Trustee David Wheeler said the board’s primary duty is to hire a chancellor, and he saw it as an abdication of duty not to move forward.
“It is the chancellor who is going to lead us out of our problems,” Wheeler said, suggesting the board was overstepping and changing policy by not actively recruiting a long-term chancellor.
“Since we’ve started this process, a lot has been uncovered,” said Trustee Dennise Burbank, referring to the human resources issues and the FCMAT report. She said she was supportive of waiting as long as a year to continue the recruitment.
Board President Susan Alves asked Hurley about what significant functions and challenges the district has now that would make it not the best time to bring in a new chancellor.
Hurley said there are concerns around the FCMAT report and addressing structural concerns in the district’s finances that the report raises. There also are ongoing issues with COVID-19, including board policies going into effect in December requiring staff to be vaccinated or tested and a similar requirement for students that begins in January.
There also are labor negotiations with the district’s four bargaining units in January, Hurley said.
“This is an incredibly busy time for the district, and I don't think there would be much disagreement about that,” Hurley said.
Ortiz said it was because of the district’s issues that it needed a permanent chancellor sooner rather than later, in order for that individual to be involved in creating the solutions.
“We have the authority to stop this search at any time,” Ortiz said, adding that it could be halted if they didn’t get the quality of candidates they wanted.
He offered a compromise that the board ultimately rejected that would have allowed the recruitment to go forward, revisiting the status of the search at the Feb. 10 meeting.
Alves said she had “a major concern” about waiting that long, and allowing people to put the work into an application process that could be suddenly halted. She felt the decision needed to be made immediately.
“This is one of the most important jobs that we have as a board,” and if it takes time, that’s fine, said Alves.
Alves said so much work needs to be done to get the district on the right footing fiscally, and she also was concerned about bringing a new chancellor into the middle of the process, losing momentum and impacting students and the district as a whole.
Board splits over action
Trustee Juan Delgado offered a motion to restart the search at a future date. Ortiz then offered an amendment to revisit the search at the board’s Feb. 10 meeting, which the board voted down.
Delgado then withdrew his motion, and Roderick offered a new motion to have Hurley present a timeline adjusted by six months to a year.
“I am totally against this motion and what we’re doing in terms of stopping this search from going forward,” said Wheeler.
He said it seemed like there was another agenda beyond FCMAT and he wanted to know what it was.
Ortiz said he also opposed it, adding that believing problems will go away if they waited another year is a misrepresentation of how education works today.
Teagarden said he also was against the motion, adding that if Houpis is doing a good job, his contract could be revised and he could apply for the job, which would offer continuity.
Delgado said staff is finally working as a team under the current leadership and employees are being allowed to do their jobs. “I really strongly feel this is the right path for all of us.”
Wheeler suggested that Roderick’s motion put Hurley in charge of running the district, and that they were creating a transparency issue, with a hidden agenda at work.
“It is absolutely outrageous. I am totally opposed to this. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves,” Wheeler said.
Alves replied by asking Wheeler not to make comments pointed at other trustees.
In the vote that followed, Roderick, Burbank, Delgado and Alves voted yes, with Ortiz, Teagarden and Wheeler voting no. Student representatives Maria Ornelas and Donovan Hutchins cast no votes, but their votes are only advisory.
Later in the meeting, the board unanimously approved the chancellor’s job announcement, which has no dates in it. Ortiz moved to approve it just before Roderick moved to table it.
Ultimately, the entire board agreed to honor the work of the committees so far and approve the document. Ortiz said that, when the district gets serious about recruiting a new chancellor, they will have to review the announcement.
Burbank said she wanted to see the current and previous recruitment announcements side by side at some point.
Correction: The student representatives cast no votes, not yes votes, for the final motion to pause the search.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
YCCD Chancellor Position Announcement — DRAFT for Board Approval by LakeCoNews on Scribd