Dr. Martirano receives a timepiece as a keepsake from the school board
Leonardtown, MD — Wednesday, September 10th was St. Mary’s County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Michael Martirano’s 209th. It was also his last. Martirano is leaving at the end of this week after 10 years to become Superintendent of Schools for West Virginia.
School board member Cathy Allen noted in her remarks during the meeting that Martirano has had a perfect attendance record at school board meetings.
Allen said that the outgoing superintendent “has given St. Mary’s County positive recognition in the state. We are looked at as a role model.”
While recognizing the prestige of a St. Mary’s superintendent going on to become one of just 50 state superintendents, the leaving this week has been emotional for many involved. Allen, for one, noted she was the one who called Martirano ten years ago to tell him he had gotten the job in St. Mary’s.
Martirano called being a superintendent, and for that matter being a teacher or administrator, a “tough, demanding job.” He described the 10 years as “extremely rewarding by the fact that all of us have been together.”
One of the first issues that the superintendent faced 10 years ago was the startup of the new Chesapeake Public Charter School. In a poignant coincidence, at his last meeting the school board renewed the school’s charter for the second five-year term.
“It has bene more than a job, it has been a way of life for 10 years,” said Martirano of a job that followed him everywhere he went in public. He told the story of a cashier at a store who asked the people in line to go to other clerks because she had something she needed to discuss with Martirano.
Martirano thanked the board for working together to “advance the agenda.” He used the analogy: “All the arrows are pointed in the same direction.” He said when everyone is one the same page: “Great things happen for the kids.” Picking up on the same analogy, he said of the metrics that measure the success of a school system “All the data points are on a positive trajectory.”
“The work is never done,” the outgoing superintendent said of what will follow as he leaves. He used as an example the narrowing of the achievement gap. He said the goal should be the elimination of that gap. “There needs to be great work in terms of equality,” he observed.
He brought up again the fact that the county is 24th of 24 jurisdictions in total per capita funding. He said there needs to be a conversation about that without the usual bickering. “Funding matters and it matters tremendously.”
Martirano is leaving after a traumatic budget crisis caused by underfunding for health care costs. That left the school board unable to fund salary increases and the commissioners unwilling to take up the slack. So Martirano said the conversation needed to include properly compensating employees.
Martirano said even though he will be in West Virginia he will continue to watch with great interest what is happening in St. Mary’s County without meddling. And he asked those at the meeting to “think of me every now and then.”
During the meeting the school board presented Martirano with a time piece put on his new desk in his office in Charleston, West Virginia.
“Open houses” for school staff and the public to say goodbye to Martirano were held Tuesday, September 9th at the Dr. James A. Forrest Career and Technology Center.
Scott Smith has been appointed as acting superintendent to run the school system until a permanent replacement for Martirano is chosen.