Less than a year after arriving as director of the Scotland Community Center, Elizabeth Ortega has left that post.
Ortega became the center’s director in November 2006, replacing Yolanda Blackwell, who had run the center for just under a year, said Jeff Bourne, division chief for the county’s Department of Recreation. Blackwell replaced Tony Edgehill, who left the Scotland Community Center after serving for nearly five years as the center’s director.
Bourne declined to comment on the reason for Ortega’s transfer saying that it was a personnel matter.
“I can’t really talk about specifics,” Bourne said.
During her brief tenure Ortega helped to create programs the youth in the community including the homework club, which was started with the help of Bells Mill Elementary School guidance counselor Patricia Goldberg.
The center is being run on an interim basis by Billie Wilson, the Department of Recreations coordinator of community centers in the County's Western region, and the three part-time staff members who work at the center.
“We’re managing the building right now so the program is not being affected,” Wilson said.
The Recreation Department will look first to fill the vacancy internally, Bourne said.
“We would hope that once the vacancy is reviewed [by the personnel department] that we would be looking first at making any potential internal transfer and then filling from the outside if necessary,” Bourne said.
Filling the position from outside of the county’s recreation department involves an extensive application and interviewing process.
--Aaron Stern