LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Superintendent Marty Pollio announced his retirement from Jefferson County Public Schools in a letter to staff Friday — which he hesitated to send for four weeks.
His JCPS career started as a social studies teacher 28 years ago but ends in nine months. His goodbye letter was difficult to send.
Pollio's career took him from coach to principal.
He wants whoever follows him to have similar hometown roots. "I think we have some opportunities internally," Pollio speculated. "You know, I had said last year after that first day there wouldn't be any candidates. I was probably a little emotional."
Now, after eight years of holding the district's top job, Pollio's moving on to public education policy.
"And how ridiculous our current accountability system is," he added.
Board Chair Corrie Shull promises a local and national search for the superintendent's replacement — and listening to JCPS families.
"We'll definitely do listening sessions in every district. We will have, most likely, a survey that will go out to families," Shull said.
He praised Pollio for closing testing gaps between students and building more schools. However, Shull disagreed with Pollio previously on bus cuts to magnet and traditional schools, he said this is a time to celebrate Pollio's career.
"We had kids missing reading and math every single day," Pollio said about the 2023 transportation meltdown at the district, "and I made a lot of errors in there as a leader that I learned from."
Louisville Urban League's President, Lyndon Pryor, says it's Pollio's ability to admit mistakes and hold himself accountable that Pryor respects most.
"The thing is that you can't just be accountable for the mistake. You also have to go in, rectify, and change it. There are two sides of that coin, but he does the first part incredibly well," he said.
Pollio said some of his toughest decisions were simply about if school was in or out.
"Whether that was weather-related. Those are really hard decisions where half of the people are unhappy with you and half of the people are happy with you," he said.
Mixed reactions were common for his tenure, and even now he has his own mixed feelings about closing the door on JCPS.
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