COMMUNITY COLLEGE BOARD TO INTERVIEW 3 FINALISTS.

Byline: Mary Beth Alexander Daily News Staff Writer

The Los Angeles Community College District board of trustees will interview three finalists today for district chancellor.

The candidates, whose names were not revealed, were chosen from among six interviewed by a selection committee of district administrators, faculty, staff and students, and other academic and community leaders.

Sources close to the selection process said that the three finalists are currently chancellors at other districts, one in California and two outside the state.

The new chancellor will replace Neil Yoneji, who will step down after trustees voted 4-3 last year not to renew his contract. Yoneji's two-year contract will expire in October.

``The individual has to be an educational leader who is capable of taking the district into the 21st century,'' said Trustee Lindsay Conner, one of the trustees who voted not to renew Yoneji's contract.

The interviews will be conducted in closed session at district headquarters.

Conner said the trustees plan to visit each candidate at his or her workplace, but could make a final decision before the end of the month.

Sources close to the selection process said six people were interviewed for the position from among about 20 applicants. A list of five names was forwarded to the district, sources said.

The trustees are interviewing only the committee's top three picks, sources said.

The new chancellor will step in at a time when the district is struggling financially. Administrators earlier this year projected the district's ending balance could plunge as low as $5.6 million, less than 2 percent of its $282 million budget.

The projection has improved to an ending balance of $9.4 million, but only after several of the district's nine campuses enacted hiring freezes and other cost-cutting measures to avoid deep year-end deficits.

Enrollment has declined continuously in the past four years, and dipped nearly 30 percent to 98,100 last fall from the peak year of 1981 when 139,168 students were enrolled in the district.

Trustees said the new leader will need insight into the district's financial workings, as well as a keen eye for improving educational programs.

``We have, oh, 80 to 90 percent of our eggs in this basket,'' said Trustee Kenneth Washington, who also supported the decision not to renew Yoneji's contract. ``We have great hopes for resolving some of our problems with the right guy, the right person.''

The trustees voted not to renew Yoneji's contract in September, less than a year after appointing him to the post.

Yoneji's salary package is worth about $152,000, including an annual pay of $125,000. He is paid an additional $10,308 for community relations expenses, which include such payments as meeting room rentals and conference fees.