McALLEN — The South Texas College board of trustees approved the engagement of an organization to assist with the college’s search for a new president during a Jan. 26 meeting.
For a price of $45,000, the Association of Community College Trustees will help the college find a permanent replacement for founding President Shirley Reed, who officially retired at the beginning of January.
Among ACCT’s responsibilities are candidate recruitment, processing of candidate applications, reference reports on up to three final candidates, technical assistance and preparation of candidate review materials.
The proposal presented to the board notes that ACCT has over 50 years of experience and has successfully completed over 500 searches for chief executive officers at community colleges across the nation.
“We appreciate the support of the board moving this item forward,” Board President Rose Benavidez said. “I mentioned earlier, we are finalizing times and dates that I believe we will do here this week in order to meet with the group. Then the question and items that we have for this item to move forward, we will be able to do so. We’re looking forward to everyone’s participation and thank you for finally moving this item forward.”
The proposal also includes a timeline for the search.
Although Benavidez noted the timeline is subject to change and will likely be finalized sometime in February, the preliminary timeline indicates that STC’s new president could start around July 1.
The preliminary timeline suggests ACCT will begin holding virtual open forums with the community to solicit feedback on the position. Recruitment is slated to start at the end of this month, ACCT is hoping to have applications in by the end of March and the board could be discussing finalists in March.
The search began on Jan. 26.
