Superintendent/President Profile

Salary Range and Benefits

Starting salary range is $325,000 – $360,000 annually. The District pays 100% of the medical, dental, and vision premiums for the employee and eligible dependents (may be subject to changes per the benefit plan year).

Minimum Qualifications

• Master’s degree from an accredited college or university
• Progressive leadership experience with five or more years of senior-level experience

Preferred Qualifications

• Doctorate degree from an accredited college or university
• Community college leadership experience in teaching, instructional services, student services, finance and administrative services, and/or human resource services

Opportunities and Challenges

The next Superintendent/President of Palomar College will be an experienced, visible, responsive leader who seeks to understand and respect the history and culture of Palomar College, while building trust and leading the College in addressing the following Opportunities and Challenges:

Increasing student enrollment, persistence, and completion through:

• Navigating enrollment and demographic shifts
• Effectively using the college centers, expanding their programs and services
• Expanding programs that meet area needs for workers in skilled trades, healthcare, public safety, logistics, and green energy
• Creating a seamless registration experience and resolving technical issues affecting student enrollment (passwords, IDs, email)
• Developing and implementing a plan to grow the in-person campus environment
• Addressing classified vacancies, workload expansion and minimal hiring that impact student access, retention and completion
• Focus on innovative program development, partnerships, community outreach, and campus and centers utilization

Recognizing the value of effective decision-making and fully engaging in shared governance while unifying the college across all constituents through:

• Building trust and cohesion across employee groups, students, and the governing board
• Addressing leadership transitions and supporting the professional development of new executive leadership
• Enhancing shared governance and leadership efforts to unify the college across all constituents
• Supporting and assisting the governing board focus on student needs and success and making policy decisions that align with the System mission and vision
• Ensuring an inclusive environment where the needs of all employees are acknowledged and supported

Ensuring sound operational and fiscal management, planning, and long-term fiscal stability through:

• Aligning resource allocation, workforce stability and student success initiatives
• Engaging in strategic discipline with fewer initiatives but done well instead of constant new projects without staffing or resources
• Modernizing, simplifying, and building confidence in systems college-wide
• Building community support for a new bond for facilities to advance completion of facilities and infrastructure improvements
• Planning for facilities evolving technologies and infrastructure demands
• Developing an organizational structure and size that reflects the changing enrollment and fiscal realities of the district

Advancing efforts to ensure the success of all students through:

• Recognizing that equity and inclusion are central to the college’s mission and a defining lens for institutional decision-making
• Assisting students in receiving adequate basic needs support for food, shelter, technology and transportation

Personal and Professional Qualities and Skills

The next Superintendent/President of Palomar College will exhibit the following qualities and skills necessary to lead the college in addressing the identified Opportunities and Challenges:

Experience

• Knowledgeable and experienced in higher education
• Demonstrated leadership experience with deep understanding of California community colleges
• Strong and positive labor relations and collective bargaining experience

Leadership

• Ethical, honest, trustworthy, and transparent
• Strategic and visionary thinker
• Straight forward communicator, who does not prioritize optics over reality
• Visible, approachable, welcoming and accessible across the district and community
• Ability to unify diverse perspectives and build consensus and trust within a complex political and organizational environment
• Decisive and courageous leader who can guide the college through change with clarity and purpose
• Highly connected to students, visible at college events, and actively advocating for students
• Holds self, and others, accountable, admits mistakes and learns from them

Decision-making

• Courageous, student-centered, innovative, data-informed, and solution-oriented in addressing what is best for the District legally and ethically and not just popularly
• Capability to set a clear and compelling direction for the college, and the ability to know when to pivot when change is needed for the success of the District.
• Follows shared governance processes and engages groups early in decision-making

Relations

• Relationship builder skilled at developing and sustaining relationships/partnerships with the governing board, students, constituent groups, and community leaders and organizations.
• Exceptional communicator and collaborator who is a skilled listener, maintains open dialogue, fosters shared governance, builds consensus, and communicates proactively and transparently
• Visible, accessible, and present on campus and in the community
• Ability to support, guide and unify a board of trustees with diverse policy goals

Budget and Finance

• Fiscally responsible and able to manage resources effectively
• Workforce centered budgeting that recognizes staffing drives enrollment, service quality and institutional stability

Fair treatment and full participation and support for all students and employees

• Aware of own cultural background and how it influences perceptions, values, and practices and effects and shapes relationships with students, faculty, staff, and community
• Fosters a strongly inclusive environment where differences are valued, respected, and encouraged