LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Parents continue to take aim at Jefferson County Public Schools leaders following a “disastrous” first day of school on Wednesday.
Unprecedented bus delays left children waiting more than an hour after their bus was expected to arrive in the morning. The evening ride home was worse, as the last students didn’t arrive home until 9:58 p.m.
JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio has largely accepted responsibility for the transportation issues. On Thursday, he released a video statement apologizing for the trouble families faced.
When pressed by reporters on Friday about why there were no news conferences sooner, Pollio appeared agitated and gave a heated response.
“If you are asking me if I was a dad yesterday, yes, I was a dad yesterday,” he said. “My family has suffered a great deal from me having this job. I think that’s – that is really an unbelievable question from you.”
“If there is an issue with that, me not being available to speak to you because I was being a dad, then that’s what I was being,” he continued. “I was being a dad and I will look back from that and – I haven’t cried in 20 years. I cried when I dropped my daughter off at college yesterday and left. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
Toward the end of Friday’s news conference, Pollio reiterated that leading Kentucky’s largest school has taken a toll on him and his family over the past six years.
He even hinted at questions he's asked himself about his future in this position in recent years.
“It’s taken a major toll on my family, there’s no doubt about it. Just from having to answer the question about whether I take my daughter to college or not to the absolute vitriol my family has to see on social media – just the nastiness – it really takes a toll,” Pollio said.
He says the issue isn’t just faced by him but by superintendents across the nation. Pollio’s worried about the community saying that there may not be many, if any, applications for these jobs in the future.
“I get it, we’ve had to make incredibly tough decisions over the past six to seven years,” Pollio said, citing decisions made during the pandemic. “The hardest ones are when there’s no right decision. And when I say no right decision, I mean, half of the population’s going to be upset with you. There’s no way around that.”
Pollio said that’s just part of the job and he’s powered through the “dog years” because he’s invested so much into the community.
“I never thought I’d have this job, I really didn’t, I wanted to be a teacher and then I wanted to be a principal,” he said. “My wife still tells me like ‘Why in the world are you doing this?’ – after today’s press conference she’ll be very much more upset about why I’m doing this.”
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