Antioch School Board hires formerly embattled ex-SF superintendent as interim on split vote

Antioch Unified’s new interim superintendent Dr. Matt Wayne. Source: LinkedIn

After Acting Superintendent Martinez claims board failed to communicate with him, withdrew name from consideration

Dr. Matt Wayne has doctorate in Education, two Masters degrees in English Education and Education in Public School Administration, is fluent in Spanish; contract is for 6 months at $1,500 per weekday

By Allen D. Payton

During a special meeting on Friday afternoon, Jan. 24, 2025, the Antioch School Board hired the former embattled San Francisco Unified School District superintendent for the interim position. Dr. Matthew R. Wayne faced opposition from the City’s then-Mayor London Breed and the public over his school closure plan.

After returning from Closed Session during which the board took no reportable action, they heard from three executive search firms on the hiring of a permanent superintendent. They then returned to Closed session and at 4:53 p.m. Boad Chair and District 1 Trustee Antonio Hernandez called the meeting back to open session. He said, “We do have a reportable action from Closed Session, the board voted in a vote of 4-1, with President Hernandez, Vice President Rocha, Trustee Colbos-Smith and Trustee Brown voting ‘yes’ and Trustee Dr. Lathan voting ‘no” to see, to appoint Matt Wayne as the interim superintendent for the Antioch Unified School District.” (See 3:54:00 mark of the meeting video)

His contract is for six months, and he will be paid $1,500 per weekday.

The board’s action followed the request by then-Acting Superintendent Dr. Rob Martinez to return to his position as the District’s Human Resources Office after Hernandez withdrew the item from their Dec. 18, 2024, board meeting agenda. The district official issued a letter to the community on Tuesday, January 28, 2025 explaining his decision:

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”

Controversy Surrounding Wayne

According to an October 17, 2024, report by Mission Local, Wayne agreed to resign due to his controversial “school closure and consolidation plan. The long-running mishandling of this effort — culminating in Wayne releasing a list of potential school closures and transfer sites on Oct. 8 that differed from what the mayor’s office, her school stabilization team and the Board of Education anticipated he’d release — appears to have been the final straw that will curtail Wayne’s two-year tenure. He has two years remaining on his contract.”

The news report further offered, “Mayor London Breed…called for an immediate halt to the closure plan, and expressed a loss of confidence in the superintendent. That sentiment was, demonstrably, shared by the Board of Education — and parents and students at schools slated for closure.”

According to an SFGate news report, “Wayne inherited the district in a chaotic state, including troubling payroll system issues, a massive budget deficit, teacher recruitment and retention challenges, and a declining number of students. Since taking the superintendent role, Wayne has been accused of poor management, as the district’s issues have only gotten worse.”

In his message to the “SFUSD Community” on Oct. 18, 2024, Wayne wrote, “I am writing to share the difficult decision to leave the San Francisco Unified School District as of October 18, 2024. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have served SFUSD and proud of all that has been accomplished during my almost two-and-a-half years leading the District.

“I am an educator first and foremost. During the last two years under my leadership, the District has established clear outcomes for student learning, implemented districtwide standards-based assessments, adopted a new literacy curriculum, expanded instructional coaching to all elementary schools, is piloting a new math curriculum, now offers Algebra in the 8th grade, and has expanded career pathway opportunities, reduced chronic absenteeism and increased early literacy rates, particularly for African-American and Pacific Islander students.

“With a new Board of Education being seated soon as well as our ongoing significant fiscal issues, I believe the time is right for new leadership in the District. From day one, every decision I have made has been to benefit the students, families, and staff of SFUSD, including this one. I appreciate the opportunity to have served this community during such challenging times.”

About Dr. Wayne

According to a San Francisco Standard news report and information from his LinkedIn profile, Wayne began his position with SFUSD in July 2022. Prior to that role he had served as superintendent of the Hayward Unified School District.

According to Transparent California, his total pay with benefits in 2019 was more than $333,000 but in 2022 it was a little over $230,000. Wayne’s total pay and benefits in 2023 was over $417,300.

According to a May 25, 2022, SFUSD press release, he worked as the HUSD superintendent for six years and, “served as Assistant Superintendent for Educational Services in the district. Prior to his tenure in Hayward, Dr. Wayne was an Executive Director of Elementary Schools in SFUSD for two years.” At that time, HUSD had 18,000 students enrolled.

He “is fluent in Spanish, began as an English Language Arts teacher in 1997 at The Riis Upper School at PS 126 in New York City. In addition to serving five years as a teacher in New York City, Dr. Wayne served as an assistant principal and an elementary principal in West Contra Costa USD in San Pablo, CA before beginning his role as Executive Director in SFUSD in 2010.”

Finally, the press release shared, “Dr. Wayne earned an undergraduate degree in rhetoric and his doctorate in Educational Leadership from UC Berkeley. He also earned a Masters of Arts in English Education and a Masters of Education in Public School Administration from Teachers College, Columbia University.” He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Rhetoric from U.C. Berkeley in 1995.

According to SFUSD, it “is the seventh largest school district in California, educating over 52,000 PreK-12 students every year.”

From 2011 to 2015, Wayne worked as “A lecturer in UC Berkeley’s Leadership for Educational Equity Program, supporting doctoral students in their development of their dissertation topics.”

Trustees Explain Process

When reached for comment about the appointment process of the new interim superintendent and not appointing Martinez, Area 5 Trustee Mary Rocha said, “What he says is that he was on the agenda to be appointed all the way to the end of the school year. There was a change of interest which is why it was pulled. It went forward to consider other candidates, so we would have choices.”

Asked if what Martinez said about the lack of communication from the Board, Rocha responded, “That was up to the chair. It’s the chair’s responsibility to be the contact person. The chair is also the contact person for the attorney. It’s always been that way. He’s the spokesperson.”

“The attorney brought it to the chair, Antonio reviewed them and of the five candidates, we were given a couple of people to review that he brought to us before the meeting. During the review we interviewed the two candidates, and we settled on Mr. Wayne. We were supposed to see all five,” she added. “The other trustees seemed to know about the other three candidates.”

However, when reached for comment Area 4 Trustee Olga Colbos-Smith refuted that responding with, “As you know, it is inappropriate to discuss closed session. But what I can tell you is we all were given the same information to review. After reviewing all five of the candidates’ CV’s (curriculum vitaes or resumes) and interviewing Dr. Wayne, I am fully committed to my affirmative vote.”

An effort to reach Area 2 Trustee Dr. Lathan asking why she voted against Wayne was unsuccessful prior to publication time. Please check back later for any updates to this report.


the attachments to this post:


Dr. Matt Wayne LinkedIn & AUSD logo


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