CCSN president turns down Houston offer

A letter by the chairman of the Board of Trustees at Harris Montgomery college and obtained by the Review-Journal stated the contract could be up to five years and asked for Carpenter to accept or reject the offer by 10 a.m. today.

As of April, the current chancellor at Harris Montgomery, who is stepping down after 16 years , was earning a salary of $203,105, according to officials in Houston.

Carpenter signed the letter rejecting the position and wrote, “Thank you for your generous offer. I am honored. I wish you the best!”

The salary offered by Harris Montgomery is about $40,000 per year more than he currently earns.

If Carpenter had accepted the Houston offer, he would have overseen 47,000 students in five colleges. Though CCSN is the largest college in Nevada, it has just three main campuses and 35,000-plus students.

Carpenter was reluctant to talk about turning down the job because the Board of Trustees in Texas is to meet today to select a different person for chancellor. He did confirm the amount of the offer, however.

“I don’t want to be disrespectful to the board there,” he said. “I don’t want to foul up their process.”

Carpenter said he turned down the post because he was happy at CCSN and believes the Board of Regents will extend his contract beyond the year he has left at the college.

His largely positive public evaluation last week also reassured him that he had the support of the faculty and community at the college, he said.

Carpenter also said he didn’t want to abandon several major projects at CCSN, such as its upcoming capital campaign and building a new campus in northwest Las Vegas.

“Just so many things are cooking. It just seems like a bad time to leave.”

Carpenter was thrown into the search for the Harris Montgomery chancellor position by a search firm. He said he was never looking for another job, although he visited the college for an interview with its Board of Trustees.

The Houston position was the second job Carpenter has turned down in the last year. He was a finalist to head the Louisiana Community and Technical College System in October before he withdrew from the search days later.

The 16-year chancellor of Harris Montgomery college, John Pickelman, announced last year that he would retire on Aug. 31 of this year.

The other candidates for the position are the vice chancellor of Harris Montgomery and a president of one of the colleges in the district.