Chancellor Chosen for North County Colleges

James S. Kellerman has been selected as the new chancellor for the North Orange County Community College District, which governs Cypress College and Fullerton College.

Kellerman, 51, now vice chancellor, will succeed Leadie M. Clark, who was ousted last July after she filed a $5-million discrimination suit against the district.

The district’s board of trustees offered the top executive position to Kellerman on Wednesday night and he accepted, district officials said. Contract and salary are still being negotiated, officials said, and are expected to be announced at the board’s meeting next Tuesday.

The appointment is expected to be effective Wednesday.

Paid Leave Continuing

Clark has been on paid administrative leave since being relieved of her job last July. The paid leave continues through the balance of her contract, which expires June 30. The district board of trustees notified Clark last April that her contract would not be renewed. She announced last July that she was filing a $5-million claim against the district, alleging racial, sexual and age discrimination.

The suit, filed in Orange County Superior Court, is still pending. Clark became the first black woman in California to be named a college district chancellor when she took over the post in 1977. She charged last April that she had been subjected to “public humiliation” by the board’s announcement that it would not renew her contract.

The board of trustees last year issued no public statement about why it was not renewing Clark’s contract, but one trustee privately said it was because the board disagreed with her administrative style.

The trustees began a search for a new chancellor last summer, and about 60 applicants were considered, according to trustee Barbara Hammerman. Kellerman was among three finalists for the position.

Headed College Association

Kellerman was executive director of the Sacramento-based California Assn. of Community Colleges from 1982 until last year, when he was named vice chancellor for educational services in the North Orange County Community College District.

The association that Kellerman headed is the umbrella organization for all 106 community colleges in California. From 1977 to 1981, Kellerman was executive director of the Florida Assn. of Community Colleges. He held administrative positions at Valencia Community College in Orlando, Fla., from 1969 to 1976.

Kellerman received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Florida State University and his doctorate from Nova University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He and his wife Patricia and their three children live in Placentia.

As chancellor, Kellerman will be the chief administrator of Cypress College, which has about 12,600 students; Fullerton College, which has about 17,200 students, and of the college district’s adult education program, which serves about 30,000 persons each quarter.