Just nine months after he was hired to lead the Mt. Diablo Unified School District (MDUSD), Superintendent Dr. Robert Martinez has been given 30 days notice that his employment agreement will be terminated “for convenience, without cause,” according to the MDUSD.
The school board held a performance evaluation for the Superintendent during the closed-session part of their Thursday night meeting, and when close-session ended, they announced all board members voted in favor of the termination.
Martinez’ annual base salary as Superintendent was $277,000, with a $2,000 yearly stipend for his doctorate. He also received a $300 a month reimbursement for automobile mileage. Martinez will receive 12 months annual base salary due to his termination, according to his employment agreement.
Before coming to the MDUSD in August of 2019, Martinez was Assistant Superintendent of the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District.
Why would anybody sign a contract that says they can be fired for convenience without cause? For that matter, why work anywhere when you have to sign a contract that clearly protects the employer and not the employee? Move on to another job without contracts.
Because the job pays $277,000 per year, with a $2,000 yearly stipend, and offers $300 a month reimbursement for automobile mileage and because it pays 12 months annual base salary after termination!!
Hate to break it to you, but every teacher in this district signed a similar contract. We can be let go for any undisclosed reason our first 2 years within the district! It’s ridiculous, but hey, at least his contract says he still gets his 12 month salary..unfortunately that’s a lot of money that could have been used for keeping teachers since they laid off a ton recently.
Are you kidding me? He worked for 9 months, and gets 12 months pay for being terminated? Where do I sign up?
Because he gets $277,000 for getting fired? At my age, if I got fired like that I’d never have to work again.
Because he automatically receives a years salary and doesn’t have to do anything.
Here’s how personal services contracts work: You negotiate “notice” and “severance” when getting hired. Looks like he gets 30 days notice and a years pay as severance.
When fired WITHOUT cause the employee gets notice (or pay equivalent to notice) + severance.
When fired WITH cause, like violating your contract, drinking on the job, etc., you DON’T get notice or severance.
Most employment contracts have this wording, no matter where you work. The employer can fire anyone at any time for any reason. Likewise, the employee can quit at any time and for any reason. It works both ways. Two way street. And, it’s fair.
As others have said, they agree to be terminated early in exchange for severance pay.
The majority of Californians are at-will employees, are they not? Why should he be any different?
The guy was probably a scapegoat anyway. MDUSD probably blamed him for the state of YVHS or Meadow Homes Elementary.
It saddens me to see what happened to YVHS. I moved to Contra Costa soon after high school but I always heard good things about Ygnacio Valley. That school is a disaster today.
Now please clean-up Ygnacio Valley and Oak Grove Middle School like you’ve been promising for years….NOW!
Here here. It’s pathetic how poorly concord public schools are ranked. It really is.
Thanks for your feedback. I’ll let their hardworking staff their schools need to be “cleaned up,” they’ll love to hear they’re being bashed once again by people who have never taken the time to find out the heart and effort everyone puts in EVERYDAY to help their students succeed. You should’ve seen the beautiful parade OGMS organized for their eight graders yesterday, only to be rudely interrupted by the Bancroft parade MULTIPLE TIMES! Seems a bit like mockery doesn’t it? I’m sorry our schools are affecting your home value.
Poor performing schools damage our community.
OGMS Proud, My 5th grader was in the Bancroft Parade yesterday. I’m not sure how us driving by OGMS on our route was a mockery of Oak Grove – especially since Bancroft has a split feeder and many of these 5th graders will be going there next year. As we drove by, we received many cheers & honks from the 8th graders which was very uplifting to our kids. Congrats to your 8th graders!
@OGMS Proud – Working hard but where are the results? OGMS and YV used to be top performing schools. They now ranking in the bottom percentile. MDUSD has even said they would move OGMS to a charter school if it failed to improve but nothing came from that. No one is bashing anyone I’m simply stating facts. If you have facts to prove me wrong please do so.
@OGMS Proud
I get that teachers work hard and have worked in the classroom myself managing 25 kids with at least one trouble-maker.
But when my kids went on quarantine, the curriculum that was sent home was a JOKE. I was appalled that what they had been learning in school was essentially only what they were being sent home for homework.
I consider myself a parent that has always been more involved than normal (volunteering, connecting regularly with the teacher, helping nightly with homework). But it was a HUGE shock what my 4th grader wasn’t learning. I took him off Zoom and Google classroom immediately and invested in workbooks for 5th grade and went or own way.
While most parents are rattled about how difficult it is to teach their kids at home, I’m just as rattled by what they don’t learn.
We lived off of David Avenue and our assigned schools were: Ygnacio Valley Elementary, Oak Grove Middle, and Ygnacio Valley High. No thank you, got the heck out.
@norwichfan no… poor communities ruin schools.. you have it backwards
OGMS Proud, are you serious, you think the Bancroft Parade was trying to upstage your school, as a bystander, looked like they were trying to support you. Weird outlook. And no I don’t have a child at either school…just thought it would be nice to support the parade.
Maybe being less petty, and working more on that 9th lowest ranked middle school in the country might help.
Man, where can I sign up to get a stipend for my doctorate…
How much did your doctorate cost to obtain? That stipend is the same no matter what level ( teacher or superintendent) it would take more than 8 years just to make that money back for two years of tuition costs after you pay taxes on it. A Masters is only $1200 a year. Many districts pay A LOT more. They also treat teachers better. More support outside of salary scale.
Good! He didn’t do anything, and he’s responsible for the district reneging on mutually agreed upon teacher contract. In response to Dawg, why would the district agree to a year’s worth salary upon termination. He makes $277,000/yr but can’t give the teachers even a 2% raise?
@NoMoreFreeRide, YV is great! Not sure where “clean up” is meant, but I attended the graduation ceremony yesterday with my wife (a teacher) and my daughter Who graduated a few years ago (honors graduate, and multiple award winner).
Maybe the school board is setting up Mr . Martinez as the scape goat for the districts problems , which is a joke . The district’s financial problems have been years in the making and they still have yet to agree on a teachers contract .
Martinez’ annual base salary as Superintendent was $277,000, with a $2,000 yearly stipend for his doctorate. He also received a $300 a month reimbursement for automobile mileage. Martinez will receive 12 months annual base salary due to his termination, according to his employment agreement
Almost 300,000 per year, 2,000 for his doctorate, and $300.00 a month for automobile reimbursement… We are failing our students and educators in the worst way in this country. How does one justify these numbers, when our students go without the basic supplies, and educators work multiple jobs to provide these supplies as well as food for their students? Wake up!!!!! What we do with education in our country is a direct path to our success as a country! We need action now!!!
Amen Mary! There are too many “cooks in the kitchen” in school districts. Can someone tell me why we have so many middle management jobs in school districts?
Rolaids, Absolutely. I work in a group of 40 people where I am the only person without a PhD in one of the physical sciences, at a facility that has over 1,000 PhD’s on site. Nobody uses the honorific of “Doctor” when communicating except when referring to the only medical doctor on staff. Every member of senior management goes by their first name. It’s intentional and the respect is still there, but you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting someone with a doctorate or masters degree.
Calling everyone with PhD “doctor” is an American phenomenon. In many places, people call PhDs “professor” or some other similar title.
>When someone yells, “Is there a doctor in the house?!” because someone else may die without immediate expert medical intervention, they’re probably not hoping for someone like “Doctor” Robert Martinez.
They’re probably not hoping for a dermatologist either. Are dermatologists “doctors” in your world?
Good! Leave his position open- never replace him. This is our chance save the taxpayer a bunch of money. This could be the beginning of something great….the thinning of the bloated government herd.
You really are proposing that the school district not have an official in charge? Every organization needs someone in charge. What you describe sounds like some kind of communist education collective. I’m guessing you are not liberal.
If the board hasn’t done so already, send Assistant Superintendent Jose Espinoza packing too!
Espinoza is already gone. He’s the new superintendent of schools in San Bruno.
…….theevaluator……San Bruno Park School District Welcomes Superintendent José Espinoza. Espoinoza is out of the MDUSD/he was hired by San Bruno on May 13th.
theevaluator- Espinoza will be the next Superintendent of San Bruno Park School District starting July 1.
https://everythingsouthcity.com/2020/05/san-bruno-park-school-district-welcomes-superintendent-jose-espinoza/
It’s my understanding that he’s already gone too.
Jose has been gone about a month now. Not sure if he was fired or quit but good riddance! He was horrible!
He was terminated along with another Asst Superintendent last month and quickly picked up to be Superintendent of San Bruno
Thanks for the update folks! He was horrible. Glad that he’s gone.
The man spent more time taking selfies of himself visiting schools instead of getting some real work done.
Yay you are so right.
12 months of salary upon termination? Are they nuts!? I think my company gives you so many weeks of salary based on *years* of service, up to a handful of months at most.
Is this job now available? Can anyone apply?
…….theevaluator……San Bruno Park School District Welcomes Superintendent José Espinoza. Espoinoza is out of the MDUSD/he was hired by San Bruno on May 13th.
See Ya
Why did the board hire him, if they were just going to fire him?
Sounds like the board needs to be replaced, too.
Maybe time to make this district smaller.
Problem is not with the board. Frustration during the meeting that the board was being asked to make decisions based on supportive documents made available to the public 3 hours prior to the meeting.
The biggest problem is that unions will not modernize many of the positions into 2-3 job titles. Instead they keep a bloated 19th century staff doing simple tasks adding even more to the pensions and healthcare costs.
I’ve lived in Concord since 1984 and I’m STILL waiting for Meadow Homes to improve! It feels as if at least some administrators are just going through the motions. And for $300,000 a years, some can afford to do the Irish Jig!
The opportunity gap will need to be bridged come November when Concord residents will be able to add 1-2 members to the board. When a school can not get enough pencils Year after Year it shows how wide the opportunity gap really is
Never should have been hired to begin with…..
There needs to be three board members gone too. The insufferable Mayo who, the feckless Lawrence, and Khaund who thinks she IS the superintendent. Mason and Durkee are good people but the other three, Uh Uh!
He was hired with a 5-0 vote and fired with a 5-0 vote… He was all talk and the board saw through it…There is no one that advocates stronger for the children at the district than , Lawrence, Mason, and Khaund
Abiding Dude – DITTO on that. These three board members are good for our students and schools – the bashers only blame and don’t see how hard they work for our students.
I blame the school board on this one folks. They are in effect “shooting the messenger” of bad news. A newly hired financial officer has revealed just how much trouble the district is in.
They don’t have the money to properly follow CDC guidelines for opening up this fall to face-to-face learning.
They don’t have the money to fund the teacher contract that THEY negotiated.
Putting extra costs for the new teacher contract & pandemic funding aside, the district is running a deep deficit for the current and coming school years.
NOW, they’re incurring new costs of paying off a superintendents contract AND conducting a job search.
NOW they’re incurring new costs of defending the rescinding of the teachers tentative agreement(a violation of Federal Labor Law) and the expected legal fight before federal arbitrators.
The school board and their superintendents (remember superintendent Gary McHenry?) have mismanaged the MDUSD and it’s financials for years. Looks like this mismanagement will continue indefinitely.
The board isn’t approving the contract because the CCCOE won’t approve MDUSD budget.
Listening to the board meeting last night, it’s clear they want to save money. They agreed not to accept our negotiated teacher contract. Members (Brian, in particular) seemed to have a very difficult time understanding the money that could be saved by agreeing to the early-retirement incentive deal (to which Brian seemed very alarmed the item was added to the agenda at 1pm that afternoon — because the deal was EXTENDED per their agreement)… the deal that would not only save the district money AND save the jobs of our colleagues. The firing will pay the superintendent for a YEAR — while he doesn’t work. Meanwhile, there was much frustration for the board members over the small chance a retired teacher would go back into a classroom and work less than full time while reviewing their benefit.
It was painful listening to some of the members speak. Kudos to Mike Berg and Racheal (forget her last name) for their voices of reason.
Here here!
Funny… You just named two people that don’t actually work for the district
Agree. How do we get Mike to work for the district??? He did very well last night and really seems to know what actions should be taking place.
And the school district wines about not having enough money. How many school supplies would 277,000 buy that they are just giving away. Go figure.
José Espinoza is a crook. San Bruno will get plenty of lawsuits with him running their districts. He is a selfish troll. Now if the board will also remove Jose’s puppets that rule our schools we will be in a good direction.
Martinez never should have been hired in the first place…
Next. Mayo, Lawrence, and Khaund need to go
@lamont – so I guess you will be running for school board.
@Sherry
I can’t because I am an employee but maybe you should take another run at it.
Boards need to do a better job of looking into these people before they hire them. What was San Bruno thinking?
Nellie Meyer may not have been perfect, but she did a much better job than Martinez. At least she actually visited the schools, spoke w the students and staff and got input. Martinez never visited some of the schools once (YV for example).
Not true! The man posted selfies of himself at all of his school visits, including YVHS. He shoulda spent more time behind his desk.
And unfortunately, Nellie Meyer left us in a lurch. When we really needed her expertise, she cut and ran to a cushier job.
A chunk of that salary would be better used by stocking classrooms or giving raises to the teachers. Meanwhile they discuss if my kids school should have upper grades that would really benefit the kids because of their budget.
When this guy interviewed for the job did he lie about what he was about or did the interviewers not ask the right questions. Maybe they should ask better questions and not be taken in by BS.
From my understanding there was alot of dishonesty and mismanagement culminating in negotiating bad faith contract with union and also deep cuts that were not adequately justified. Glad he has been given the door to love on. Its a real shame he is getting the severance part…
The district has hired head hunters on behalf of our board for our last three superintendents, and then fired two of them at great expense to the district. Looks to me like our school board all need to be fired. They ultimately pick ‘em.
There are search firms which refund some or all of the search expense if the candidate is fired for cause or poor performance. The District would do well to hire a firm with some skin in the game. But I have no confidence in public education in California… except in the most well-to-do areas.
That is exactly what I am saying.
You are known by the company you keep.
If they hired head hunters, then that makes this even worse.
The Board can’t pick them, and can’t even find them. So they pay someone who is supposed to bring the best candidates. I would like to know how much these head hunters got. And does the district get the money back if they don’t work out.
Any journos out there willing to dig deeper. Probably not.
They should find the smartest teacher with the most common sense and hire him or her. Someone who shuns politics. Stop hiring experts. Contracts should be done by committee.
They are laying off teachers and all other staff to give that jerk a $277.000 salary I wonder why the district is always in deep crap.
But…… our school budgets get cut and Teachers get pink slipped and yet we can afford to pay his salary for a year AND pay another Superintendent the same salary…..RIDICULOUS. We need to do better by our kids and Teachers……
The state of California has a “terminate without cause” law for ANY employee of any company. It’s standard operating procedure unless you craft a contract that overrides it. Almost everyone has no choice but to comply if you really want the job. What I want to know is WHY they chose to can him. And why, coincidentally, the principal of College Park High was let go, too?
What makes me laugh … all these comments complaining and it seems hardly ANYONE here actually knows where there tax money goes. Nobody researches anything then complains when things like this happen.
This is how administration works in school districts. It’s how it’s worked for a VERY long time. This is where your tax dollars go. All of you complaining have nothing to complain about when you haven’t gone to any meetings or even done the more basic amount of research to find out how your money is spent locally. Firetrucks, police vehicles and even the paint put on the street so you can park your car are all budgeted year to year.
When will people start learning and understanding instead of blaming everyone else, or getting upset at, the people utitlizing the system put in place BY EVERYONE? This is all in the same vein as the people who make “wearing a mask” a political issue instead of a health issue. Grow up people.
This is at least the 3rd superintendent that’s been fired. Why do we continue to offer a contract that gives year’s salary when they’re fired? This man has been there less than a year and will make $500,000! No wonder the district has no money!
Look at performance. There are more gone than these three and they don’t have a Spanish surname.
He’ll probably also qualify for unemployment……
I wonder if the MDUSD board reads these comments. If not, someone should tell them they should. Their vote to not ratify the tentative agreement with the teacher’s union came as no surprise to the rank and file. Martinez and the board dragged their feet way too long and now due to Covid19 there is even less money to go around.
The dismissal of Martinez is and at the same time is not surprising; but as others have noted he was best known in the District for taking selfies everywhere he went. What did he actually do for the District? The board probably couldn’t tell you either.
I think it is very important that the board listen to the rank and file in all the District’s schools. We are very upset that our contract was not ratified; however, what’s makes things so much worse is having to continue to work at sites where the majority of staff are unhappy with and do not feel valued by the administration. Granted, there are schools that love their principals and being in that environment makes coming to school more palatable. Those sites that have inexperienced, hand picked, Jose Espinoza (former assist super) lackeys who pushed and continue to push his ridiculous agendas on staff regardless of cost and pertinence should be contacted and surveyed.
Show us that you care. This is the place to start.
By “inexperienced, hand picked, Jose Espinoza (former assist super) lackeys”, you must be talking about Ygnacio Valley Elementary.
He does not get an extra year. He gets one year salary. He has already worked 9 months so he will get three more months.
I believe you are wrong. He gets one year of base salary (no performance bonus, car allowance, retirement contribution), because his employment was terminated before his contract expired. Previously, he had ‘worked’ and received full pay for 9 months. I would guess that they had offered him a 3 year contract… I’m sure someone posting here would know the answer.
wow
Well, let’s have some good news…
Ryan Joseph; the student wrestler who was paralyzed during a match a few years back walked the stage today at College Park High School.
Congratulations!
https://www.pscp.tv/w/1YqKDEZrWbBGV
Thank you @S. That was a nice video. Congratulations to Ryan Joseph and his family.
Thank you for sharing this heart warming video.
Congratulations Ryan Joseph & family!
We don’t know what we can do until we do it! YAY RYAN!!!
That was beautiful! Thanks for sharing!
That was beautiful! Thanks for sharing!i
If you ask me Wendy Aghley who is the director of special Education and who puts children first , which is why educators should work in the field they are in anyway , she should be superintendent. She would have the district running like a well oiled machine . She’s smart .
Wendy Agily puts children first? It is my understanding she is never in her office or even in the district. Spends lots of time away from her job, how could that be good for children?
This is a joke, right? She is the absolute worst. Putting students first is the last things she does. She bring her friends along for jobs, and they don’t seem to be much good either. And I guarantee you she’s going to use this opportunity to get a promotion. Please, please know that the parents that actually have to deal with her do not think she is putting students first.
They may be making him a fall guy. Look up Meyer on google. She helped bankrupt San Diego Unified, moved here when we had a surplus, and now our district was in dire straits before Covid. All of this can be confirmed through Google searches.
Retired and in all of my working career, not in govt or education,
if terminated without or with cause you did not get a yearly paycheck
severance etc. Lack of doing your job means ZERO!!!!
yeah that pin ball machine never tilts.
I resided in both counties before. They are both solid educational districts. After 20 plus years though they are much more complex even with these simpler circumstances.
Hopefully the Doctor and family can locate their circumstances to a more community based set up. He wasn’t really qualified for the position. Take it on faith.
Paying that much money to anyone while teachers and students are asked to buy and donate school supplies is simply a disgrace shame on all responsible,Absolutely immoral !
This is on the school board. They took a big gamble on an unproven guy from a small district to run a much bigger and more complex district. They have allowed for teachers to go without a contract for almost 2 years on their watch. I agree that 3 must go. Mayo is long overdue to hit the road. Lawrence didn’t even want to return and got voted in anyways (huh?). Durkee can join them. Mason and Khaund have the interests of students and teachers in the decisions they make. It’s going to be a rough 12 months ahead folks. Let’s be supportive of our schools while demanding better decisions from our leadership.
This district is in more dire straits than people really know.
What about the $10,000.000+ that the director of food got for a new central kitchen or new trucks and god knows whatever else. No one talks about that. It is a scarey time right now and we have leaders that are only looking out for themselves.
It seems like this is a great opportunity to hire someone who can satisfy everyone. If we are all willing to make a few sacrifices then I feel confident the right candidate is out there. In summation of the comments we need a candidate who:
-Possesses strong leadership skills and can guide us through these uncertain times (and is willing to work for 1/3 of the industry average)
-Communicates openly and spends time visiting each and every campus (but stays in the office also and absolutely NO selfies!)
-Honors the teacher negotiations and pays them what they deserve (but preferably not from tax payers money)
-Fixes the budget deficit (by letting go of everyone at the district office and possibly renting the space)
-Is willing to spend free time cleaning litter from Oak Grove and Ygnacio Valley (and possibly toilet training sea gulls in the area)
-Ensures that each and every student regardless of language, cultural factors, or socio-economic status can score high enough on a standardized test so that the great school rating is at a 9 or 10 (property taxes)
-Has the vision to get rid of everyone on school board (and replace with Claycord polls)
People we can do this!
Just a word here .The School Board can only make decisions on what the District gives them. If anyone has been checking the board agendas lately I have never seem such a mess. Late revisions, job titles wrong and other issues. I amazed the Board can figure it out what they are voting on. That’s why they have asked so many questions and hope they get the right answers and have been grilling them on nearly everything.Given information late and bad information They did vote on the contract and County said no. Why did the District let the Board vote on this if we didn’t have the money? To make the County be the bad guy. They should have told their negotiators go back and try and work out something. What County must think of our District. And the Superintendent only gets the last couple of months left on his contract. That’s standard practice
@norwichfan
I was a student at OGMS and YVHS, and I loved my experiences there. I believe that the measure of a great school should be whether the students are happy, love to learn, are provided with the services they need to succeed, and gain the skills to be prepared for college and a career. Because of my experiences at these schools, I am now an MDUSD teacher and college instructor.
I got my first full time contract position in 2008. When the recession caused MDUSD to do away with class-size reduction, I became a substitute teacher because there were no full-time positions available. As a substitute, I was able to teach at both affluent and low-income schools in the district. During a long-term substitute position at a Pleasant Hill school, I discovered their secret to making a great school. The families invested quality time into their child’s community school. The parents didn’t only care about their own child, they cared about ALL of the students in the school. Instead of just advocating for their own child’s learning, development, and well-being, they advocated for ALL of the students. The parents were true partners in the learning process. Wherever there was a need, instead of blaming the teachers, parents were ready to take part in making a difference in the students’ lives.
If you care about the outcome of your community schools, please join us and invest in the schools in your community.