On Wednesday, the Antioch Unified School District Board of Trustees voted 4-1 to hire Matthew Wayne as interim Superintendent.
According to the contract, Wayne begins on January 30 and ends June 30, 2025, unless terminated by the Board. Wayne’s base salary will be $1,500 per day and not to exceed $145,500.
Trustee Mary Rocha moved the item which passed in a 4-1 vote with Dr. Jag Lathan dissenting.
“We are going to try very hard to review the conduct of the acting superintendent,” said Rocha. “We have a contract that is 14-days on it and we are sure as board members we are on top of it so the public is aware that there is some issues that have been brought up to us but we want to work with the community as well.”
Wayne, who resigned from SFUSD in October 2024, will replace interim superintendent Robert Martinez.
Under Wayne, the SFUSD was looking to close schools in the 2025-26 school year, however, that was placed on hold after the district announced Dr. Marie SU was named as superintendent. Former Mayor London Breed was critical of Wayne with the planned closer/merger of 11 schools.
Prior to going to SFUSD, Wayne was superintendent at Hayward Unified School District, where he served since 20217.
Back in September 2024, Antioch School Board Amended its contract with acting Superintendent Robert Martinez. He has been serving as acting superintendent after the Board agreed to a separation with former superintendent Stephanie Anello–she had been with Antioch Unified for 25-years, including 8 years as superintendent.
As for acting superintendent Robert Martinez, he will revert back to his former role at the District. Martinez issued the following letter Tuesday to the Antioch Unified School District and local community.
Dear Antioch Unified School District School Community,
It has been an honor and privilege to have served the students, staff, and broader Antioch Unified School District Community as “Acting Superintendent” and Chief Human Resources Officer since May of 2024. During my tenure as “Acting Superintendent”, I was able to confirm thousands of students with their High School Diplomas, welcome back over 15,000 students to our schools and programs in the fall of 2024, and I was able to initiate and oversee the Governing Board’s selection of McPherson and Jacobson as the search firm to assist the District with finding a long-term superintendent. I have also continued to oversee and manage both the Classified and Certificated Human Resources Departments as we have strived to fill many positions in the District. One of my primary focus areas has been to ensure that all our scholars were able to attend school every day in educational environments where they are welcomed, feel safe and secure, and where they can continue to excel in their academic and developmental pursuits and grow in peace.
In December of 2024, I strongly urged the Antioch Unified School District Governing Board to formally place me into the Interim Superintendent position for the remainder of this academic year. However, the Board chose to not formally appoint me into that position, and pulled the agenda item from the December 18, 2024, Board meeting without any formal public discussion. Since that time, after numerous attempts to communicate with the Board, with minimal returned responses, or limited direct communication from the Board members, I decided that the Antioch School Community might be better served if I were to step back into my Human Resources role alone, and away from the “Acting Superintendent” position.
The betterment of the school community and how our scholars are impacted on a daily basis has and will always be my main focus, and it is with this thought in mind that I hope that the new Interim Superintendent will have more success with communicating with the Board, receiving clear direction and goals from the Board, and in receiving input from the Board with regards to the difficult budget decisions that lay ahead. Hence, I advised the Board on January 10, 2025, that effective on February 1, 2025, I would return solely to my initial contractual position as the District’s Chief Human Resources Officer.
On Friday, January 24, 2025, the AUSD Governing Board announced that they would be appointing Mr. Matthew Wayne as Interim Superintendent. It is anticipated that a formal contract for Mr. Wayne will be presented to the Board for review and potential approval at the January 29, 2025, Governing Board Meeting.
Respectfully submitted, with care for students, and thoughtful consideration of all,
Dr. Robert A. Martinez,
Acting Superintendent / Chief Human Resources Officer
Antioch Unified School District
Bay Area Stories
- San Francisco Chronicle Timeline: SFUSD superintendent resigns: Timeline shows events that led to school chief’s ouster
- ABC7 – San Francisco Unified School District’s Superintendent Matt Wayne plans to resign Friday, report says
- San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Mayor Breed slams SFUSD superintendent and calls on him to halt closures
- ABC7: SFUSD superintendent Matt Wayne defends closure and merger plans as he meets with upset SF Public Montessori parents
- Mission Local: City to intervene in troubled SFUSD schools — superintendent keeps job
Previous
- Jan 29 – Antioch Interim Superintendent Issues Open Letter
- Jan 24 – Antioch Unified Names Matt Wayne as Interim Superintendent
- Jan 23 – Antioch Unified Set to Talk Acting Superintendent, Hire Search Firm
2 comments
Ms. May’s words are not even coherent. They are just a disjointed rant. It proves once again that those with the least to say tend to speak the most.
Whoops, sorry – my bad. I accidently posted this comment to the wrong article.
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