College of the Sequoias President Stan Carrizosa is exploring other employment opportunities, he informed College of the Sequoias faculty and staff in late January.
In an internal email, he stated that he had applied for chancellor positions with two community college districts in Southern California, Coast Community College District (CCCD) and North Orange County Community College District (NOCCCD).
Those two colleges, he explained, had their chancellors either resign or retire, and have been searching for replacements since last fall.
Carrizosa said that he was originally contacted last September and had declined to apply for the positions. He was later contacted in December, after the districts decided to extend their search and applied for both. In the letter, he stated that the positions would allow him to be closer to his children.
Carrizosa’s son is a singer/songwriter in Los Angeles; in 2008, he won an ABC reality show in which the winner was awarded a Disney record contract and a music video to be shown during the credits of High School Musical 3.
Before coming to the College of the Sequoias, Carrizosa had served as superintendent of the Burbank Unified School District from 2010-2012. Prior to that, he was superintendent of the Visalia Unified School District from 2001-2010.
“I am not in ‘search mode,’” he wrote. “If I am not selected (very likely based on competitive national search) I have no other interests to leave College of the Sequoias and the work we are doing together.”
On February 10, he followed up the letter with an announcement that while he had withdrawn from consideration for the North Orange position, he had progressed to finalist interviews with Coast Community College District on Thursday, February 18.
“After thoughtful reflection of my experiences in both first round interviews I feel more engaged in the opportunities and possibilities with Coast Community College District (CCCD),” he wrote. “I felt it was my responsibility to focus my interests and show this respect to NOCCCD and therefore withdrew from their process.”
“If there is anything I know I am 100% committed to, it is the fact that if I am not the final candidate of choice or a positive agreement cannot be achieved with CCCD,” Carrizosa said, “I am so very happy to be here at COS and am excited about our ongoing work and new ideas being generated for our future!”