PORT ANGELES — A contract for Brinton Sprague to serve as interim Peninsula College president has been approved by the Peninsula College Board of Trustees.
“We are happy to have you as our new interim president,” board Chairwoman Julie McCulloch, a Port Townsend businesswoman, told Sprague, who was in the audience at the Tuesday afternoon meeting.
Sprague, a retired community college leader now living in Port Ludlow, will take over after outgoing President Tom Keegan leaves in February and will oversee the transition to a new permanent president.
His contract says he will serve from Feb. 9 through June 30 and that he will be paid $59,195.
That’s based on an annual salary of $150,000 for 261 days, prorated for the 103 days he is expected to serve.
If no permanent president is in place by the end of June, the trustees and Sprague can agree to continue the contract.
Selected from three
Peninsula College trustees selected Sprague, 70, from three applicants, none of whom currently work at Peninsula College, for the interim position to temporarily replace Keegan, whose last day will be Friday, Feb. 3.
“The choice was clear and compelling,” said board Vice Chairman Mike Glenn, who is the chief executive officer of Jefferson Healthcare hospital.
Keegan, who has led Peninsula College for 10 years, was selected in October to be the new president of Skagit Valley College, where Sprague once served as vice president for educational services.
After the meeting, Sprague praised Keegan and said he would do his best to assure a smooth transition to the new president.
“I’m looking forward to getting to know the community as quickly as I can,” Sprague said.
Sprague also will receive health and life insurance benefits, sick leave, 10 days of vacation, retirement benefits and be reimbursed expenses and receive travel and per diem allowances as provided by state law.
Keegan will earn a negotiated salary of $200,000 at Skagit Valley, said Sue Williams, Skagit Valley College executive director of human resources.
Going to Skagit
He replaces outgoing President Gary Tollefson at the college, a two-year community college about one hour north of Seattle that has an enrollment of about 23,000.
Keegan was earning $204,434 in August at Peninsula College, which has an enrollment of about 8,100.
Sprague most recently has worked as special assistant to the president at the Lake Washington Institute of Technology in Kirkland and also taught at Cascadia Community College in Bothell.
He has lived in the Puget Sound area since he was stationed at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in the early 1970s.
He was a founding member of North Seattle Community College in September 1970.
From 1975 to 1988 — when he began as dean at Skagit Valley College’s Whidbey Island campus — he served as division chair and director of North Seattle Community College.
From 1993, when his tenure as dean ended, he served as vice president at Skagit Valley College, based in Mount Vernon, until 1998.
He was a founding vice president for Cascadia Community College in Bothell in 2000.
He retired in 2001 but continued as a senior associate member of the faculty, teaching American and Pacific Northwest history and American foreign relations.
In 2004, he became the interim president of Cascadia, serving until 2005.
Sprague received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington, a Master of Arts in history from Western Washington University in Bellingham and a doctorate from the University of Washington.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
