It's been almost three months since Washoe County School District Trustees fired and let go of Superintendent Pedro Martinez - and then re-appointed him. And emotions are still running high among the board members.
At Tuesday's meeting Trustee Howard Rosenberg dashed out of the room in dramatic fashion twice and had an angry exchange with a member of the public offering comment during the meeting. President Barbara Clark used her gavel to calm down Rosenberg more than once and warned him he'd be ejected if he didn't quiet down.
The outside counsel for the Washoe County School District, Kent Robison, told the board of a letter from Superintendent Martinez's attorneys warning them not to mention him in any way as they talked about the qualifications they would be looking for in replacing him. And Martinez himself wiped tears from his eyes more than once during the meeting.
At issue yesterday was deciding the process for replacing Martinez and Trustee Dave Aiazzi, who is leaving in November due to health reasons.
The process for replacing Aiazzi was settled by posting the job in the local newspapers and taking applications through October 27th. And Angie Taylor was the first to express passionate interest in spite of the problems the board faces.
"I have been involved with education all my life," she said. "Education changed my life and I see how important it is for the future of our community. I see this as a bunch of great people...caught up in a bad situation and I believe I have the experience to help turn it around and focus more on the future. We've got to make a big step toward restoring the public's trust. It all starts there with trust."
Taylor has worked in athletics at the University of Nevada and in education and fundraising.
All applicants will be consideredand the board hopes to make an appointment on November 5th.
Meantime, the decision on replacing Martinez will have to wait for next week's meeting. While the board originally set out to find an interim and then a permanent replacement, Trustee Estella Gutierrez pointed out that the District's Deputy Superintendent, Tracy Davis. should be appointed as the interim until a permanent replacement is found. Since it wasn't on the agenda, that move couldn't happen until the board's next meeting next Tuesday.
