Embattled Chicago Public Colleges CEO Pedro Martinez is about to take cost of Okay-12 colleges in Massachusetts, pending closing approval by the state’s schooling secretary.
The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Schooling voted Tuesday to suggest Martinez to be employed as its subsequent commissioner. 9 members supported Martinez’s hiring whereas two abstained as a result of they backed one other candidate.
Massachusetts Schooling Secretary Patrick Tutwiler will make the ultimate name to carry Martinez to the East Coast. However that appears to be a foregone conclusion: Tutwiler sits on the board and was one of many 9 ‘sure’ votes in favor of the departing Chicago colleges chief.
“This second, this state, this company, wants daring confirmed management the place there’s a balanced exemplification of a willingness to associate meaningfully, to confront robust challenges, to assume outdoors of the field, to display humility at occasions, when the scenario requires it, and unapologetic nature at different occasions, when the scenario requires it,” Tutwiler mentioned within the assembly Tuesday. “In my humble view, that is Pedro Martinez, and I will probably be supporting his candidacy.”
Martinez mentioned in an announcement that it was the “biggest privilege of my life to return house and serve” as CPS CEO. He mentioned he would end the varsity 12 months in Chicago and depart in mid-June.
“I’m profoundly grateful to the Massachusetts Board for his or her belief in my management and for recognizing the work we’ve accomplished in Chicago, in addition to in San Antonio and Nevada,” he mentioned.
“On the similar time, Chicago — and Chicago Public Colleges — will all the time maintain a particular place in my coronary heart. This metropolis welcomed my household and me after we emigrated from Mexico, and CPS grew to become the inspiration of my private {and professional} journey.”
Chicago’s Board of Schooling is predicted to ramp up its seek for a brand new chief this spring.
Martinez was fired from the highest CPS job in December after a protracted and generally ugly battle with the Chicago Academics Union and Mayor Brandon Johnson. His contract allowed him to remain on the job for six months as a result of he was fired with out trigger. In that point, he finally oversaw an settlement with the CTU in testy contract negotiations. However each the union and mayor continued portray him as an impediment to their objectives for the varsity system.
However Martinez has touted his time main his hometown faculty system. He has pointed to a nation-leading pandemic restoration by Chicago college students and his administration’s reform of the way in which CPS funds its colleges.
The Massachusetts board started its seek for a brand new commissioner with public enter conferences in November. Martinez was certainly one of 42 individuals who utilized and certainly one of three finalists for the job. He interviewed in particular person for the position this month. Martinez was the one finalist who had led a district.
Martinez will oversee the state’s greater than 300 faculty districts serving practically 900,000 college students.
Lots of the Massachusetts state board members mentioned they appreciated that Martinez had handled controversial conditions. Vice Chair Matt Hills mentioned he was impressed with Martinez’s capability to handle a number of constituencies.
“That is somebody who has had progressive expertise in more and more bigger and extra advanced organizations, with considerably elevated political conditions that they must stability,” Hills mentioned throughout the assembly Tuesday. “However on the finish of the day, that is somebody who’s been in a position to lead giant organizations to get fairly considerably optimistic ends in key schooling priorities.”
Board member Ericka Fisher mentioned that, within the face of threats on public schooling from President Donald Trump’s administration, the state board wanted somebody like Martinez who “can keep standing and proceed combating.”
Martinez’s lawsuit in opposition to Chicago’s Board of Schooling stays pending.
