Looks charming enough to consider a summer session (Image: Seattle Central)

Two community college presidents and a community college official at the U.S. Department of Education are in the final running to become the next chancellor of Seattle’s community college system.

Seattle Colleges will hold a series of public forums at each of its four campuses with the three candidates and asking for public feedback. They will also be taking questions from the audience. Here is the schedule for Seattle Central’s Broadway campus:

• Mark Mitsui — March 7th, 10:15 AM, Room BE 1110
• Gale Gibson Gayle — March 8th, 10:30 AM, Room MAC 210
• Shouan Pan — March 15th, 10:15 AM, Room MAC 210

The district announced the finalists in February. The new hire will replace outgoing chancellor Jill Wakefield, who announced her June 2016 retirement last year, and take charge the 50,000 student school system that includes, SCC, North Seattle College, South Seattle College, Seattle Vocational Institute, and four specialty centers. As the chief executive for the Seattle College District, the chancellor reports to a five-member board of trustees appointed by the governor.

The chancellor gig would be a homecoming of sorts for Mitsui, who was the past president of NSC and vice president of SSC. He is currently in Washington D.C. serving as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Colleges in the federal Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education.

Gayle has been the president of Essex Community College in Newark, New Jersey since 2013. During her tenure, ECC was awarded $24 million in grants that were used to boost graduation rates and expand the campus.

Pan has been president of Mesa Community College in Mesa, Arizona since 2008 and has held college administration jobs in Florida and China.

Meanwhile, the search continues for SCC’s permanent president to start on July 1st. Dr. Sheila Edwards Lange was named interim president in June 2015 after Paul Killpatrick stepped down following two five years on the job. SCC is planning to name the next president in May, making it one of Wakefield’s last major decisions before she departs.

Killpatrick was dealt a tough hand upon his arrival to SCC when he was notified the college needed to cut 5-7% of its budget. Within a year, he forced out several longtime administrators and terminated four programs. Killpatrick also weathered controversy surrounding an age discrimination lawsuit brought by a Seattle Central administrator in her 70s who alleged she was forced out of the position she held for 39 years because of her age. In summer 2013, a jury found that the termination was not discrimination.

SCC is also gearing up for the final phase of construction on its new maritime facility in Ballard, expected to be complete in July.