Dr. James Albanese started his first week as interim vice president of Business Services at Cerritos College on Monday.

He is taking over from Jo Ann Higdon, who took a position at El Camino College, said Igerna Morriss, secretary to the director of Fiscal Services.

The Board of Trustees appointed Dr. Albanese to serve for one year.

“That’s why they need an interim, because it takes a while to fill a position,” he said.

Dr. Albanese is already familiar with Cerritos College.

“I’ve known people here for years. I’ve known the person at this office twenty years ago,” he said.

Business Services has a tentative budget of $98 million, which was passed in June.

“We haven’t put some income in yet, because we don’t have a figure yet,” he said. “I’m hoping the numbers go up. We may not adopt this budget until August.”

With the problems with the state budget, another concern is that there will be cuts from the the Cerritos College budget this year.

“If they make cuts we could have problems, but we’re okay. Students will be taken care of. We have reserves. We’re taking care of students the best way we can.”

The interim vice president will also oversee a major construction project in the spring semester, once the contractors’ bids are approved.

The project will include some renovations and demolitions of four buildings, although Dr. Albanese did not specify which buildings.

Dr. Albanese said that there will be a loss of student parking as the construction will require staging areas in parts of parking lots C-10 and C-1, but that the staging areas will use only two or three rows in C-10 and a few rows in C-1.

Dr. Albanese was born in Hawaii and grew up in San Diego. He currently lives in Whittier.

He taught in the classroom for 10 years and served at Mt. San Antonio College for 20 years.

Since then he has served as executive vice chancellor at San Mateo, and has held positions as interim vice president at Chaffey and Pasadena Community College districts.

He enjoys playing golf, although he said he hasn’t been able to play in a while.

Dr. Albanese also enjoys traveling and photography. He went to India last year, and he just came back from a trip to Tanzania five weeks ago.