The president of North Carolina’s community college system is stepping down, as board members who lost confidence in him after barely 18 months on the job accepted his resignation. Thomas Stith III, once chief of staff to then-GOP Gov. Pat McCrory and a former Durham city council member, will resign effective Friday. The statement disclosing the resignation came days after board members met behind closed doors for three hours. Friday’s closed session was in part to talk about Stith’s performance related to his goals as president, and followed Stith’s presentation on those goals. The state board voted in December 2020 to hire Stith as the next president of the 58-college system, which is one of the nation’s largest. Now a presidential search will have to begin to seek another new leader. Four different permanent presidents and two interims have held the job since 2015.