Schofield Elementary School Principal Gerardo Martinez, a finalist for several local superintendent and school administration jobs recently, has accepted a new principalship position in Lexington, Mass., according to Wellesley Public Schools.
We’ve reached out to Principal Martinez for more details and will update this post if we get additional information.
Martinez has been principal of Wellesley’s Schofield Elementary School since 2011.
Among his other involvement in town has been as a director on the Kids Backing Kids board. A man of many talents, Martinez is giving boxing lessons as a prize at Schofield’s upcoming school auction.
Wellesley Public Schools has had stability at its principal positions in recent years. The last new one was Grant Smith in 2021 at Hardy, but there has been relatively little turnover of late at that level.
The departure of Martinez deals Wellesley Public Schools’ staff diversity efforts a blow, alongside the exit of its diversity, equity & inclusion director.
WPS Human Resources Director Monica Visco said during this week’s School Committee meeting that the Schofield principal job posting is up. It’s elicited a decent response in terms of the number of applicants, though not much in the way of diversity, she said.
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This is a major loss for WPS and for our town. Not a “diversity loss”, as stated in the article, but a loss, period. Big. All our three children went through Schofield under Mr. Martinez. He was a wonderful principal, on all fronts. The fact that he is going to a neighboring town points to a move not for personal reasons, but rather for professional ones. As I merely try to speculate why, I can’t help by wonder whether this is somehow related to the fact that he has not submitted to the woke lunacy that has gripped WPS in recent years. Indeed, while at Schofield, my children were never exposed to critical race theory, gender ideology, or any of the many other forms of invasive indoctrination that have all but contaminated our schools. Not coincidentally, my kids did better academically there than at WMS and WHS. As importantly, they were happier there, too. And let’s not forget that Schofield caters to the most diverse student body in the whole of Wellesley. Mr. Martinez is moving to a town that has rejected external control of school curricula, has rejected self-entitled proselytism, and has respected and empowered families. Not surprising, their academic performance and rankings have consistently remained at the highest levels, year after year. It is Lexington for the win…