Renton Technical College hosted the first of its community forums for the search for a new college president last week, as current President Steve Hanson is set to retire June 30, 2015.

The school hosted two sessions, in the morning and afternoon, to capture community input. The morning’s session was well-attended with mostly staff and administrators. Some of the top priorities addressed by the audience for the school to focus on were the college’s image, morale, pay, parking and the president’s ability to collaborate with industry leaders and big business to name a few.

Donna Duncan, in enrollment services, has been employed at RTC for 16 years and said lately, morale needs to improve.

“That is, for me, one of the biggest issues that needs to be addressed,” Duncan said. “Because if you’re going to be at a place for as long as I’ve been here, you need to enjoy working here.”

Some recent turnovers at the top seem to have upset the balance in her department, as she said the school needs to “build our morale and get people loving what they do.”

Susan Palmer, RTC chairperson of the Board of Trustees, said there have been some staffing challenges.

“People have gotten better jobs, better pay,” she said. “And that’s what I’ve heard the reasoning is other than regular staff issues.”

Palmer did state that pay is an issue the school hopes to address with the new president, how are they going to hold on to staff and is there a way to increase pay for current staff.

Human Resources Director Lesley Hogan said that technical colleges are often the training ground for community colleges and universities for staff. She described a trend that doesn’t sound specific to just RTC.

“People leave our institution and get those better, bigger, great opportunities, which you never want to hold people back, but it’s also one of those things where we’re going to have to think of how do we transition to one of those employers of choice,” Hogan said.

The college hopes to find a new president with the same integrity and passion for the school as Hanson has.

“His example is helping us know what to look for as a Board of Trustees,” she said. “I guess the theme in a couple of the meetings we’ve had and this one is that risk-takers might be somebody we look at and I’m not sure Steve’s the risk-taker some of the staff are looking for, but we’ll see.”

College officials are finalizing the application questions now. Formal recruitment will begin in November/December, with screening interviews in February and March.

The Board of Trustees will make the final decision and the new president is scheduled to start in July 2015.