Alex Porter, Vice President of Business and Administrative Services at Los Medanos College, will be leaving for Cypress College in Southern California. Porter’s appointment at the college begins April 2 and March 6 is expected to be his last day here at LMC.

The Vice President’s exit comes as a surprise, but a pleasant one for the VP.

Porter worked at LMC for the past two years, but is finally returning back to his Southern Californian roots. After working at California State University Long Beach for 11 years, the initial move to Northern California was a big change for Porter. However, the position at Cypress is an opportunity for him to return closer to his true home.

“It was very difficult decision for my wife and I, but the opportunity to go “home,” to be near our family and friends, was very important to us,” said Porter.

Making for the second administrative exit in two semesters, Porter’s leave moves quite a few things around for Kratochvil. With Vice President Kevin Horan’s exit in the fall semester, Kratochvil went to work looking two new VP’s instead of one.

Like many other colleges in the district, President Kratochvil split what was originally one position, Vice President of Instruction and Student Services, into two positions.

The move comes in light of many major projects that are in-the-works or already underway.

“We have many different processes and new programs under development…having a single person on all of those [is a lot to manage],” said Kratochvil.

For now, both positions are being filled by people with long histories in the college district.

“Gail Newman who has been here for about twenty years…[and] is serving in an interim capacity [as Vice President of Student Services],” said Kratochvil.

Sally Montemayor Lenz is filling in for Vice President of Instruction.

Having the two, Kratochvil hopes, will create some consistency while they look for people to fill the three Vice President positions.

Recruitment for Vice President of Student Services will end March 4 and the process will continue with about a month of committee review, paper screening, and finally there will be an open forum for the candidate to address the college.

As for the other two VP positions, administration is still determining which they will seek to fill first. There are a few moving pieces in the administration right now, but the president is aiming for stability in the interim.

“It has been a challenging and exciting two years at Los Medanos College,” said Porter. “I feel the college is poised to achieve even greater things than they already have.”