COLLEGE TO FILL 46 JOBS IN 2007 MORE ENROLLMENT, FUNDS SPUR STEP.

Byline: GIDEON RUBIN Special to the Daily News

Antelope Valley College will fill 46 positions in 2007, including 29 new full-time jobs in a move officials called one of the ``community college's most ambitious hiring campaigns.''

The projected cost of the hiring plan is $1.46 million, college spokesman Steve Standerfer said Tuesday.

Standerfer cited burgeoning enrollment and an influx of state funding as the driving forces behind the school's staff expansion.

Enrollment is projected to grow 5.57 percent in the 2007-08 school year, a figure substantially greater than the 3.67 percent allowed for by the state, college President Jackie Fisher said.

Standerfer said seven existing faculty positions vacated by retirements and resignations will be filled. Amog those is the position held by longtime football coach Brent Carder, who announced his retirement last week. The college will create 11 additional full-time faculty positions.

The college also seeks to fill 28 staff support positions including a police officer and a human resources director.

Once completed, the college's faculty will have more than 200 full-time staffers and more than 400 part-timers.

Fisher said the additional staffing is necessary to meet the needs of the school's rapidly changing demographic. The student body is now significantly younger than it was as recently as three years ago, with a much greater percentage of the school's enrollment seeking to transfer to four-year colleges.

The combined enrollment at its main campus in Lancaster and at the Palmdale campus already exceeds 13,000.

``We need to meet the needs of growth in the Antelope Valley in Lancaster and in Palmdale,'' Fisher said. ``We're a community college, not a commuter college.''

AVC Federation of Teachers President Heidi Preschler took issue with the numbers college officials represented, and she said the hiring is on par or below the numbers of recent years.

``I am pleased that the district is hiring new faculty and staff as we grow to meet the needs of the community, but it's news to me that we've launched our most ambitious hiring campaign,'' she said. ``In fact, this is the usual hiring that we've been doing for many years as we've continued to grow.''

Standerfer said the hiring process begins in January, when AVC posts its openings nationally. Faculty appointments are expected to be made in the spring, allowing instructors time to prepare for the start of the start of the 2007 fall semester in August.

Fisher said the football coaching job would be a full-time position that includes teaching physical education classes. He said he expected to start interviewing applicants in March and hoped to make a recommendation to the trustees in April.

Longtime Palmdale coach Jeff Williams, Lancaster coach Jeff Cortez and interim coach Joe Watts are rumored to be the leading candidates for the football job. Fisher, however, dismissed speculation that anyone yet is being viewed a front-runner, noting that local ties will not figure in the selection process.

``We're looking for the best qualified (candidates),'' Fisher said. ``They will all be evaluated equally.''

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