Maldonado elected chair of LCC Board of Education

Eighteen months ago, Jesse Maldonado was among the applicants seeking an open seat on the Lane Community College Board of Education.

He didn’t get the seat then. None of the applicants did, as a divided board deadlocked, and so the seat remained open — until May 2025, when Maldonado, running unopposed, won the at-large seat Lisa Fragala occupied until she was elected to the Legislature. 

At the board’s Wednesday, July 1, meeting, Maldonado marked the end of his first year as a trustee.

And he was elected the board chair for the 2026-27 academic year.

In a sign that divisions on the board remain potent, the vote for Maldonado the chair was 4-3. 

Still, of all the seven trustees, Maldonado may be in the best position to bridge the gaps on the board. During his year on the board, he emerged as a key swing vote on divisive issues, such as a decision to close two LCC degree programs as part of cost-cutting measures.

“Nobody’s ambivalent to how this board has operated over the last 12 months,” Maldonado said during a brief interview after Wednesday’s meeting. “It’s been tough, rough and tumble, and I think that I can hopefully play a role — just as every other board member can, but as chair specifically — to lower the temperature a little bit to make us work together better.”

Maldonado is an adjunct professor at the University of Oregon. He also is a national political and labor director for the Democratic Municipal Officials organization. 

“I am a pragmatic person,” he said in the interview. “I want to get good things done, and I want to make sure government runs and operates as it should.”

Maldonado was nominated for the position by Jerry Rust, the board’s vice chair, who called Maldonado “one of the strongest young leaders we have in Lane County.”

Kevin Alltucker was the other candidate for board chair, and he was nominated by Steve Mital. Mital praised Alltucker’s “excellent relations” with LCC President Stephanie Bulger, and said Alltucker has helped the board “focus on the big picture, on the ends and not the means.”

Alltucker himself struck a conciliatory tone: “I was just thinking about how great a chair Jesse would make, and I can count the votes.”

He was right: Board members Austin Fölnagy, Zachary Mulholland, Rust and Maldonado voted for Maldonado. Alltucker, Mital and Julie Weismann voted for Alltucker.

Fölnagy, the previous chair, did not seek a second term. 

Rust was elected to a second term as the board’s vice chair over Alltucker, by the same 4-3 vote. 

Also at Wednesday’s meeting, the board: 

• Heard a report that LCC’s enrollment continues to show growth in headcount, but students are taking fewer credits. For the academic year just finished, LCC’s unduplicated headcount was 17,056 students, a 3.5% increase over the previous year. That includes students taking courses for credit in addition to noncredit community classes and “College Now” courses, which allow high school students to earn college credits. LCC’s enrollment declined from 2012 to 2022, but has rebounded somewhat since then. 

• Approved a $493,260.70 contract with National Networks Services of Oregon for the installation of new wireless access points and associated cabling. The contract was awarded on a “sole-source basis,” prompting a question from Alltucker. Thomas Goodhew, LCC’s capital construction manager, said National Networks had installed much of the campus’ original wireless network originally and had extensive knowledge of LCC’s network infrastructure. The company also has been the selected installer in competitive bidding for other large projects on campus, Goodhew said.