The Lower Columbia College Board of Trustees spoke last evening for the first time on their upcoming search for a new president. This search comes after the board terminated President Matt Seimears’ contract without cause or fault in January and after they opted to extend Interim LCC President Kristin Finnel’s contract through the end of the summer quarter last month.

They called this an “informal discussion” on a rough outline of their plans. They talked about possibly wanting to start the search after Spring Quarter and said the search would take about a year to complete.

One big discussion was whether they wanted to go with a search firm or not. A hybrid model was discussed and seemed to have some traction; it would allow the board to jump onto another college’s search to save money and time.

They did not make any sort of decision at last night’s meeting; there was talk about possibly having a special meeting sometime soon.

This also comes after a recent email announcement from Interim President Finnel making it clear that she does not plan on trying to get the job as the new president. In an email, she stated, “I love being your Vice President of Instruction and plan to return to that role once we have a new president in place.”