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NANTICOKE — Noting that he didn’t get a raise for the last three years, the Luzerne County Community College Board of Trustees unanimously approved a 9% raise for college President Thomas Leary at Tuesday’s meeting. The trustees also approved renovation of the former book store on the third floor of the Campus Center to create a “Student Success Center” at a cost of $650,000.
“The board’s decision to increase the president’s compensation is the result of a presidential evaluation process as well as the presidential compensation salary structure for Pennsylvania Community Colleges” Trustee Chair Lynn Distasio said in a written statement handed out after the meeting.
The other terms of Leary’s current contract remain the same. He has been president since 2007 and received his most recent contract extension — through Dec. 11, 2022, two years ago. His salary at the time was set at $169,685. A 9% increase to that amount would be $15,272.
The increase is not retroactive, but began Tuesday.
Approving a substantial increase after several years without a raise echoed a 2016 vote. At the time the trustees noted Leary had not received a pay increase since 2011 (five years), and approved a raise that was retroactive, giving him about $23,000 for the previous two years. His pay had been frozen at $155,000, in part in response to his involvement in a 2013 hit-and-run crash.
The Student Success Center will house multiple student services in a walk-in setting, Rosana Reyes said after the meeting. The vice president of enrollment management and student affairs said that includes academic advisers, orientation, counseling, career, retention and accessibility services.
The large room, which had been the book store before another space was renovated for that purpose, will include glass-enclosed spaces for one-on-one conversations, she said. The center will be “walk in,” available to students any time during business hours. It was the same room the where Tuesday’s meeting was held.
The motion approved by the board gave a green light “to move forward in the estimated amount of $650,000 plus architectural fees in the amount of 6.99% of the final cost, plus a contingency (which may or may not be fully utilized, in the amount of 8% of estimated construction cost.”
The new center should be ready in a few months. Coupled with extensive work on the College Conference Center, that likely means the board will have to move trustee meetings yet again. Meetings were usually held in the the Conference Center, but that building suffered water infiltration that caused mold, and was shut down for repairs. At the August meeting the repairs became more expansive when the trustees voted to replace the exterior masonry block because it proved to be too porous. That work, also expected to be done in the next few months, added $834,632 to the building repair and renovation project already underway.