The Washtenaw Community College Board of Trustees will meet for a special meeting this evening to approve a new president and pay raises for faculty and staff.

The meeting will be in the Community Meeting Room of the Morris Lawrence Building at 4 p.m.

The only action item on the agenda is the approval of the contract for new president Rose Bellanca. She'll replace President Larry Whitworth, who has served in that capacity for over a decade.

Stephen Gill, a WCC Trustee, said the board has been doing due diligence on Bellanca since she was named as Whitworth’s probable successor at the last board meeting.

“Everything about her sounds like a great fit for our institution,” Gill said. “We’ve been through all of our interviews with her and her references and she looks like a terrific fit for us.”

Additionally, the trustees will be discussing staff and faculty pay structures. Preliminary documents released with the agenda indicate that WCC will be increasing salaries and wages across the board.

While revenues for the school have fallen due to budget cuts and decreases in the value of the school’s millage, Gill said the trustees built those considerations into their long term budget.

“Our increases have been modest and we would like to do more,” he said. “But we feel that we are keeping our salaries reasonable in comparison to our sister institutions and the economy.”

After the open meeting, there will be a closed-door session where the trustees will discuss collective bargaining and personnel matters.

Click here to view the full agenda for the meeting along with the proposed pay increases.

Ben Freed is a summer intern at AnnArbor.com. You can reach him by email at benfreed@annarbor.com or by phone at (734)-623-4674. Follow him on Twitter @BFreedInA2.