Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.
Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez is one of six candidates in the running to become superintendent of Nevada’s Clark County Public Schools.
The school board voted to fire Martinez without cause in December after growing hostility with Mayor Brandon Johnson. His contract allows him to stay on as CEO until June and he is currently suing the Chicago Board of Education.
But according to an agenda for a special meeting posted online, Martinez was one of 46 people to apply for the job leading the Nevada district, which is the fifth largest in the nation after CPS. The Clark County Board of School Trustees will meet Feb. 18 to discuss the slate of six candidates vying to be the next superintendent.
CPS declined to comment for this story.
In Martinez’s online application for the job, Martinez said Nevada is a state “I know and love.”
“It’s where my children were born and spent their earliest years,” Martinez wrote in the document included on the Feb. 18 agenda items. “To return to such a personally and professionally formative place is a unique opportunity I am excited to explore.”
Martinez adds that Clark County’s “commitment to fostering student success in one of the most dynamic and diverse educational environments resonates deeply with my values and my personal background as a first-generation student growing up in poverty.”
His application includes former Chicago Board of Education president Miguel Del Valle and former CPS CEO and former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan as references.
Clark County’s previous superintendent resigned last February after what the school board described as an “amicable separation,” the Las Vegas Sun reported.
Clark County School District serves nearly 300,000 students. Forty-nine percent of Clark County’s students are Hispanic; 19% are white, nearly 16% are Black, and 6% are Asian American, according to district demographic data. Just over 16% of its students are English learners and just over 14% have Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs, which outline services for students with disabilities.
The presentation outlines a slate of six candidates, which includes Jhone Ebert, Nevada state superintendent; Jason Glass, former commissioner for the Kentucky Department of Education; Joshua Starr, former superintendent of Montgomery Country Public Schools in Maryland; Jon Anzalone, superintendent of Camas School District in Washington; and Ben Shuldiner, superintendent of Lansing schools in Michigan.
The first round of interviews will be from Feb. 24-25, according to the Clark County presentation. The school board can choose to interview all six candidates for the first round but may forgo some of them, meaning it’s possible Martinez will not get a formal interview, according to the presentation.
The second round of interviews would happen from March 10-11, which include community forums. The Clark County school board is expected to hire a new superintendent at its March 13 meeting, but a spokesperson said that timeline could change.
Martinez’s firing from CPS followed months of disagreement between him and Johnson over how to alleviate the district’s financial pressures, including how to pay for upcoming labor contracts. Since the fall, the district has been mired in a leadership struggle that included the mass resignation of Johnson’s first appointed school board.
Martinez, who served as superintendent of the San Antonio Independent School District before taking the helm at CPS, is no stranger to Nevada. Earlier in this career, he was the “superintendent in residence” for the Nevada Department of Education, where he was an education policy advisor for both the governor’s office and the state superintendent of instruction, according to his biography. At one point, Martinez was briefly deputy superintendent of Clark County schools, according to his online application.
Before then, Martinez was the superintendent of Washoe County School District in Reno from 2012-2014. The Washoe County school board fired Martinez for allegedly misrepresenting himself as an accountant, then claimed it only wanted an administrative leave, Reno Gazette Journal reported.
Martinez filed a wrongful termination lawsuit and said he did not misrepresent himself. Martinez settled the lawsuit for $500,000, the newspaper reported.
Correction: This story misstated the date in which the Clark County school board is expected to a hire a new superintendent. A spokesperson said the expected hire date is March 13.
Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.
