Ventura College President Quits After 3 Years on Job : Education: Jesus Carreon will be head of Rio Hondo College. Board may wait to replace him.

Three years after taking over as president of Ventura College, Jesus Carreon will leave the post for a similar job at another community college in the Los Angeles area, officials said Thursday.

Carreon will vacate the presidency at the end of June, just 36 months after moving to Ventura from El Camino College in Torrance.

Beginning July 1, he will serve as superintendent and president of Rio Hondo College, a single-campus district in Whittier that enrolls about 17,000 students and spends about $34 million a year.

“I am excited about joining the Rio Hondo family,” Carreon said in a prepared statement. “However, I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent at Ventura College and will take with me very fond memories and lasting relationships.”

Carreon was not available for comment Thursday.

The announcement, which is expected to become official today, caught several board members off guard. But none were too surprised.

“He’s certainly made many contributions to Ventura College,” Trustee John D. Tallman said. “He’s a talented administrator.”

Ventura County Community College District officials will form a search committee to seek Carreon’s replacement, Tallman said.

Carreon’s resignation comes just over four months after the death of Chancellor Thomas G. Lakin, who died in late November.

Board members have been struggling to replace Lakin as chief executive officer of the district. His duties were temporarily taken over by Moorpark College President James W. Walker weeks after the sudden death. Governing board members named Moorpark College Vice President Darlene Pacheco interim president at Moorpark until a new chancellor is found.

The board may wait until after a permanent chancellor is hired to replace Carreon, Tallman said. “I would kind of lean toward doing it after” a new chancellor is hired, he said.

Tallman said a college president of Carreon’s ability would have been difficult to keep.

“I’m real happy for him because the job is a real plum,” Tallman said. “It’s a really nice school.”

Trustee Pete E. Tafoya called Carreon’s departure “a great loss” to the college and the Ventura County college district.

“He was doing a great job at Ventura College,” Tafoya said. “It’s one that’s going to be very difficult to recover from, but it illustrates the quality and caliber of people we have.”

Tafoya agreed with Tallman that it might be more prudent to wait until a new chancellor is named before replacing Carreon.

“We’ll move to temporarily fill the position, but we are not that far off from having a chancellor,” Tafoya said. “So the board may hold off.”

Officials at Rio Hondo College, with a student body that is 70% Latino and 13% Asian, said they were excited about Carreon coming aboard.

“We are delighted that the selection process has been successfully completed,” Rio Hondo board President Maria Elena Martinez said. “Dr. Carreon brings to the college a breadth of experience, and we are confident that the college will prosper under his leadership.”

Rio Hondo spokeswoman Beth Fernandez said the Whittier campus is known for its police- and fire-training courses, a nursing program and its environmental technology curriculum.

The Ventura College president is paid about $96,000 a year, although Fernandez said Carreon’s salary at Rio Hondo is still being negotiated.

Carreon, 46, has spent nearly two decades in public education. He taught world history at several high schools and community colleges before moving to college administration at Laney College in Oakland.

By 1982, he rose to the position of assistant dean at San Bernardino Valley College and went to El Camino College five years later.

Carreon was selected for the Rio Hondo job from 56 applicants, including interim President Timothy Wood.

A search committee narrowed the applicant pool to 11 before the board of trustees interviewed four finalists. Carreon was offered the job after a board meeting late Wednesday, Fernandez said.