LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The Clark County School District has narrowed down its search for its next superintendent after being without a permanent leader for about a year.
The district’s board of trustees will meet Tuesday to discuss and approve the slate of six candidates it’s scheduled to interview next week.
One of those candidates is Pedro Martinez, the previous chief executive officer of Chicago Public Schools who was fired from that job in late December.
“I don’t see the probability of a strike. I really don’t. I don’t see it,” Martinez told 8 News Now’s sister station WGN on Jan. 29 after leaving a Chicago courthouse. He was speaking about Chicago’s teachers union. Both sides have yet to come to an agreement on a new contract.
Martinez is currently in a fight with Chicago’s education board. The board fired him as CEO after he refused to follow the mayor’s request and take out a short-term high interest loan to pay for new teacher salaries, according to WGN. Chicago Public Schools is facing a $500 million deficit.
“I will continue supporting our bargaining team in the hopes of reaching a fair financially responsible labor agreement,” Martinez said.
“I was elected to fight for the people of this city. And whoever is in the way of that, get out of it,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.
Martinez was CCSD’s deputy superintendent in 2011 but left to take the top job at Washoe County.
“I’ve loved every minute of working here in the CCSD, but its actually a great opportunity to continue some work that I started there, prior to being here in Clark, I was actually in Washoe [County],” Martinez told 8 News Now on June 29, 2012.
Two years later in 2013, Washoe’s school board fired him saying he misrepresented his credentials. He disputed that and filed a counter lawsuit, settling for half a million dollars.
Martinez is still serving as leader of Chicago Public Schools until June, according to WGN.
As far as the other five CCSD superintendent candidates, only two have connections to the district.
The school board will meet Tuesday to approve the six finalists for superintendent and the district’s timeline for hire, according to an agenda posted on the district’s website. Interviews are tentatively scheduled for Feb. 24 and Feb. 25.
After those interviews, trustees will narrow the pool of candidates and hold interviews again on March 10 and March 11. Then on March 13, the board will vote on a superintendent.
