College District on Brink of Picking Chancellor : Education: Trustees are expected to give a tentative nod today to one of four candidates, who include minorities and a woman.

After a six-month search, Ventura County Community College District officials are on the verge of selecting a new chancellor for the three-campus system.

In a closed meeting today, trustees are expected to interview the four finalists--all California community college presidents--for the position and tentatively narrow the field to one.

However, the selection will not be announced until after the trustees have visited the campus where the top finalist is currently employed, said Timothy Hirschberg, president of the district’s board of trustees.

Hirschberg declined to name the four finalists, as did Jerry Pauley, associate vice chancellor for personnel who also was chairman of an 18-member committee formed to select the chancellor. The selection probably will be announced April 11, they said.

The new chancellor will replace Barbara Derryberry, 58, who announced last May that she would retire this June. Derryberry, who earns $112,000 a year, made the announcement two months after the district became embroiled in a scandal involving Trustee James T. (Tom) Ely.

Ely was charged last August with conspiracy, embezzlement and fraud in connection with filing allegedly false travel claims with the district that amounted to about $15,000. Ely, who has denied any impropriety, is scheduled to face trial in late May.

Ely’s travel expenses came to light after the trustees learned of the trustee’s gambling activities in Nevada. The district attorney’s office launched an investigation after the trustees commissioned an audit of his district expense records.

However, Derryberry said her announcement to retire had nothing to do with Ely.

“If it had been related to the Ely matter, I would not have stayed for an additional 14 months,” she said Friday.

She was appointed chancellor in January, 1988, and her contract was up in August, 1990, Derryberry said. “I announced at the time I was willing to stay through this June to allow the district sufficient time to find a replacement.”

She said she wants to retire and move to rural Tennessee where she and her husband have purchased property close to other family members.

“We’ve been working on this a year or two,” said Derryberry, who has lived near Ventura College for 30 years.

She went to work for the district in 1970 as an instructor at Ventura College. She obtained a law degree and worked her way up through management to the position of vice chancellor for personnel. From that post she became interim chancellor for six months before her permanent appointment.

The new chancellor will take over effective July 1, overseeing three college campuses in Ventura, Oxnard and Moorpark, a student enrollment of about 30,000, a full-time staff of 950 and an annual budget of $64 million.

Hirschberg said the finalists, three men and one woman, include minorities. They were picked from about 60 applicants by a selection committee composed of faculty, students, administrators and members of the community, he said.

As a board member, he said he is looking for a chancellor who is tough and experienced, someone who will take the reins of the district.

“We need someone to act as the board’s watchdog over the board’s finances,” he said. “There is only so much board members can do.”