NC community college system leader expected to leave position, sources say

Thomas Stith, the president of North Carolina’s community college system, is expected to leave his position following an 18-month tenure, people familiar with the matter told WRAL News.

News of the likely departure came after the State Board of Community Colleges convened Friday in a meeting that included a closed-session mid-year review of “presidential goals,” according to a meeting agenda. The closed session lasted more than three hours.

The move is said to have been months in the making, prompted in part by what two people familiar with the matter described as concerns over recent hiring decisions by Stith. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue was a personnel matter.

Stith didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment. The chairman of the community colleges board, Burr Sullivan, also didn’t respond to requests for comment.

An announcement related to Stith’s future with the community colleges system was expected as early as Monday.

People familiar with the matter say it’s not clear yet who will run the system while the search for a new president gets underway.

The state community college system has lost nearly all of its top-level leadership in recent years, with high turnover throughout the system’s central office. Nearly half of the system’s 58 schools have also changed leadership.

Stith, a Republican, is a longtime political figure in North Carolina. He was a Durham City Councilman from 1999 to 2007, when he lost a mayoral bid to incumbent Bill Bell. He worked for former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory as chief of staff. He was also state director for the U.S. Small Business Administration under former President Donald Trump.

Sources familiar with the matter say there’s no obvious successor to Stith. The system has had six presidents in the past seven years, three of them interim.

The system’s bipartisan governing board has twenty voting members: ten appointed by the governor, four each by the state House and Senate, plus the Lieutenant Governor, the state treasurer. House appointee Burr Sullivan serves as chairman.