Joann Ordinachev has been elected president of the STLCC Board of Trustees

Robert Nelson’s three-year reign as president of the St. Louis Community College’s Board of Trustees has come to an end. Earlier this month, the board unanimously elected trustee Joann Ordinachev to take his place.

Ordinachev is a retired counselor from North County Technical School of the Special School District. She previously served as board president in 1998-99 and 2003-04. She was elected to a third six-year term on the board in April 2007.

Bob Nelson had been president of the board for three years in a row.

The board officers serve one-year terms. It’s not unheard of for a trustee to serve consecutive years as president, but it is a bit unusual. Nelson’s three years as president came during a time of board turmoil over questions of how campaign money for a tax referendum had been used. The board had asked one  board member, Michael Rohrbacker, to resign, but he instead quietly finished out his term. And the political consultant in question — Steven Wyatt Earp — was sentenced to five years of probation earlier this month after a St. Louis jury convicted him of two felony counts of stealing more than $25,000. Nelson wanted to help steer the college through those difficult times.

With that situation now behind the board, apparently everyone felt it was time to resume rotating the leadership positions.

The board also elected Eleftheria “Libby” Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald, a retired professor in counseling at the Forest Park campus, to be the vice chairwoman. Fitzgerald, who has been a trustee since 2008, has also been very active in a union that represents many college employees.

The Grade is the St. Louis region’s premier blog on education and child welfare. To read other recent posts, go to www.stltoday.com/thegrade.