Leadership
A Retirement Love Letter
In August of 2019 I left the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District after thirty-two years of service. In my time in FSUSD I provided service as a School Psychologist, Assistant Principal, Principal, Director of Human Resources, and I was in my sixth successful year of service as the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources when I left the District.
I then became the Superintendent of the Mt. Diablo Unified School District during a difficult budget year when the pandemic literally forced us to close schools to 30,000 students in a day’s turnaround. I then served as both the Assistant Superintendent of Business Services and Human Resources for the Washington Unified School District, prior to being named as Superintendent and Chief Executive Officer for the Griffin Technology Academies in Vallejo for the 2021-2022 school year.
After a challenging year at GTA, in June of 2022, I actually submitted my formal retirement paperwork with the California State Teachers Retirement System. As I contemplated retirement, I decided to apply for one more position as I was intrigued about the District and the services they were aspiring to provide to students. When the position was offered, I recalled my STRS documents, and I accepted the assignment to become the Chief Human Resources Officer for the Antioch Unified School District. While retirement was enticing, I decided that I wanted to continue my career of service and I opined, “What better place to continue my service than Antioch?”
Over the last three years, I have strived to be the best school administrator that I could and tried to model exemplary service and leadership to all. I hope that I have provided the service, support, skills and guidance that was needed by employees to serve all of our students in this capacity. I worked to foster better communication with the employee representative groups, individual employees, and worked to elevate the administrative team at every turn.
I can truly say that on the whole the employees in the Antioch Unified School District are some of the most dedicated people that I have ever worked with in my thirty-eight years of service. It has been challenging to say the least, however, I feel fortunate to have been able to return to a TK-12 -Adult School District and connect with so many caring educators. I feel strongly that I am leaving behind a positive legacy of service that I am extremely proud of.
In April of 2024, when the Governing Board asked me to step up to serve the District as Superintendent, in addition to carrying my Human Resources responsibilities, I said, “Yes” and took on the responsibilities of both of these high-level positions. School leadership is never for the faint of heart, and yes, this last year provided some of the most challenging meetings, conversations with Board members, and struggles along the way, and yet, I was able to meet and fulfill the rigorous commitments of both positions to keep learning moving in the classrooms.
As the year progressed I felt the heavy responsibility to bring about equitable, high level, and compassionate care and education to the almost 16,000 students of the District, and I’m grateful that I was not alone in this endeavor. My Human Resources Team is simply incredible. My Administrative Assistant is tops bar none. My second in command who took on a substantial level of responsibility during these months, extraordinary! My Cabinet Members were all on-point, focused on what mattered, and were each outstanding in their commitment to students.
We finished the 2023-2024 school year strong. One of the highlights for me was being able to accept thousands of new graduates during the commencement ceremonies. We also worked to prepare for the 2024-2025 school year, and sought to promote the District in every way possible to be able to tell the positive stories and activities that were bringing about needed change for students and the community.
Our beginning of the year staff development for everyone was inclusive, specifically focused on equitable and ethical practices, and focused on building authentic relationships that could endure the challenges ahead. Our employee representative groups were willing to work together to bring about a more swift conclusion to negotiations so as not to distract from the real work of creating equitable opportunities for students, and I believe that I was even able to begin the alignment of the Board as they transitioned to new leadership. Knowing that I would be leaving at the year’s end I was able to guide them to initiate the initial steps towards finding a new Superintendent.
While the work of both positions was extremely rewarding, and the team of administrators with whom I worked with is extraordinary, in January of 2025, I did make the decision to pull back my services from the Superintendency to facilitate a better transition to new leadership for the District. Over the last three months I have concentrated my responsibilities on ensuring that there was a succession plan in place for both of the positions that I was filling. I am now focusing on my next and important promotion to retirement.
I have heard it said that sometimes the transition to retirement can be a challenge for Superintendents and high level administrators, and I can now understand that a bit more. The jobs of top-level education administrators can be unnerving, making you lose sleep with worry as if all the children of the District are your own who are not home before their curfew. I anticipate that there will be a dearth of emails, phone calls, text messages, which might ring loud with their silence, but I think I am more prepared than most. I know that this silence will be filled with new songs, new refrains, and new experiences.
Some have asked me, “What will you do when you retire?” and if you know me, you know that I have a long list of things planned and will be willing to add more every day. I know that I will write more, speak more, publish new products, and somehow be on stage. I will determine if I will choose to provide coaching, consultation, or create my own side hustle. I will rest, then go, then rest some more, then go farther. We will travel, breathe, and work to enjoy each and every moment of living. I will walk, hike, exercise, sing, dance, and branch out to new activities with the glee of a child.
My last official day in the office is Friday, May 2, and then I will officially be on vacation through the last day of the school year, June 10, 2025. This will mark 38 years of service to public education. With some simple math, I believe that includes service to well over 200,000 students in some way that I have worked for during that time.
To the literally thousands of people I have worked with in this amazing endeavor, I sincerely want to share my thanks for what each of you have done in support of children as well.
In closing, I’d like to share two quotes with you that I have worked to keep in mind as I tried to be the best educator that I could be.
The first is from Ralph Waldo Emerson.
“Successful is the person who has lived well, laughed often and loved much, who has gained the respect of children, who leaves the world better than they found it, who has never lacked appreciation for the earth’s beauty, who never fails to look for the best in others or give the best of themselves.”
The second is one of mine, Dr. Rob Martinez
“Let the lives we help others live be the measure of our success.”
I like to think that I’ve tried to do just that throughout my career and life, but don’t worry, I’m not done yet! There will be more to come!
Again, my sincere appreciation and with thoughtful consideration,
Dr. Rob Martinez, AKA “Resiliency Guy,” AKA “Papa Rob” You can reach out to me by email, ResiliencyGuy@gmail.com and find a number of my writings at https://resiliencyguy.com/
Interested in Dr. Rob’s latest book? You can find it here: “Recipes for Resilience, Nurturing Perseverance in Students and Educators.” http://amazon.com/dp/1956306439
The Power of 12: Nurturing Positivity and Resilience in Students and Educators
From his recently published book, “Recipes for Resilience, Nurturing Perseverance in Students and Educators”, Dr. Rob Martinez shares the concept of “The Power of 12”.
How do we make sure that we capture the essence of each positive thought, action, and feeling so that they trigger more positive results, creating a snowball of success? Well, we take action to initiate positivity; we watch for it, we share it, we promote it, we use it to build ideas in the community we live in, and we spread it on everything!
Each and every positive experience we encounter is part of our story, but far too often we allow those who languish in negativity to influence us. Negativity can be found on the local news, in our offices, and even in our personal thoughts, so we must consciously work to listen and be prepared to contradict inaccuracies when we meet them. We must seek and share the positive comments, acknowledgments, successes, and steps taken toward healthy growth, and use this information in our own stories. We must share this information with our neighbors and colleagues, and even, for that matter, on the local news!
If we want the world to know about the great things that are happening in our environments, we must shout it from the mountain, whisper it to each other, share it on every screen, and print it on every piece of paper that exists! Here are a few ways:
• Build a class story. Each day, or at least once a week, give your class some time to acknowledge and show their successes, growth, and development. Write it down, capture it in pictures, or heck, even go live on social media. Create a library of experiences that tell the story of this group of amazing people.
• Use a class, school, or district website to tell the incredible stories of advancement, success, and good things that are happening in your environment. You don’t have to do it alone. Let your students take charge! Include them and put their ingenuity to work.
• Get out there and talk yourself up. Whether you speak up in staff meetings, parent-teacher organizations, local community groups, or even at board meetings for your organization, tell the story of success that you see.
The Power of 12!
I’ve said it a few times in this book, and it bears repeating: we must consider the hearts, minds, souls, and actions of all individuals as we strive to build and enhance our own resilience and that of our community. We can do this through a purposeful approach that seeks to acknowledge positivity when it presents itself to us. The Power of 12 is one such way. You must take on this challenge yourself, and to truly create an upswell of positivity, you should also enlist every adult in your organization to take part in these simple steps:
Step 1. Each week, tell at least one student and one colleague that you saw their heart. What does it mean to say that you saw someone’s heart? You will know it when you see it. You will see it in the way people care for each other, the way they take a second to think of someone else, the way they make life just a little easier for others or lighten the load for another person.
Step 2. Each week, tell at least two students and two colleagues that you appreciate their mind and the way they share their perspective with you or others. In our world, we are often connected by being disconnected. Many people would rather get a text message than a phone call, would rather read a Facebook post than have a conversation. Self-expression is becoming a lost art. Even at our dinner tables, we far too often look up and see those in the room watching their phones rather than really engaging. We communicate verbally and in person less than ever before. We must remember that we shine our brightest when we are actually locked in true discourse and connected by being with each other.
When someone actually takes time to share their thoughts and perspective, we should stop, focus, and listen. We should strive to really understand their intent and then seek clarification so that we understand them. In many circumstances, when we misunderstand someone’s words and ideas, it isn’t because they didn’t communicate clearly; it’s because we didn’t listen appropriately. Telling someone you appreciate their mind lets them know that they are meaningful to you, that they hold innate value as a person, and that you’re interested in what they have to share. So many of us feel devalued in our society, and I often wonder if some of those feelings come from not being listened to and appreciated for our thoughts and words.
Step 3. Each week, tell at least three students and three colleagues that you saw them help someone’s spirit soar. Did they offer a kind word, give encouragement to a friend, offer compassion and caring to another? Did they give a blessing to someone in need or support someone having a tough day? Did they give an unsolicited cup of coffee, snacks, or written words of love to someone? The examples can fill a book. Our acts help others’ spirits soar just a little higher all the time, but we are often not looking for these moments.
Okay, did you add them up? Step 1 calls for you to tell two people that you saw their heart. Step 2 calls for you to tell four people that you appreciate their minds. And Step 3 calls for you to tell six people that you saw them help someone’s spirit soar. So, each week, you would personally be connecting with twelve people, hence, the Power of 12.
If you want to start out in your classroom and keep it simple, start by saying to your students: “We are going to have a challenge over the next week. We’re going to focus on being kind, smart, and helping others, and we’re going to try and catch everyone doing it. So, during this next week I challenge each of you to tell at least four different classmates that you saw them do something kind, do something smart, or help someone. Then, at the end of the week, during our reflection time, we’ll hear about the amazing things our class has accomplished to make life better for everyone here.”
If you happen to have a teaching staff of twenty people and you enlisted each of these teachers into this simple activity, you all can connect with 252 students each week with a personal communication that is meaningful and provides feedback about their heart, mind, or ability to help someone’s spirit soar. Think about it: in just two and a half weeks, each child at this school would have been personally acknowledged by a member of the teaching staff!
What if you added your classified staff—everyone at the school site who doesn’t have a teaching credential yet cares about these children? Let’s add another twenty, even though some of them work part-time. That’s right, include your yard supervisors, custodians, parent volunteers, and anyone who is on your campus. With 41 adults participating in your school environment, collectively you can connect with 492 students each week!
Okay, now, just for kicks, imagine what happens if all 650 students were supported and empowered to exercise the Power of 12 each week of the school year. So, now there is you, the teaching staff, your classified staff, all adults on campus, and all the children participating. What you have is an explosion of positivity! If all 691 people participated in the simple practice of the Power of 12, each week there would be at least 8,292 positive affirmations occurring.
Over the course of a thirty-six-week school year, this would bring 298,512 positive interactions into existence that would lift up the entire school population. Talk about the Power of 12! This would garner some positive attention across your school community for sure!
This idea can be implemented in any environment, with any number of people. It’s another way to take back control of the narrative and the environment for everyone in the community. Will it stop all negativity from occurring? Perhaps not. But when each of us is engaged in planting the seeds of a positive environment, we’re taking fertile ground away from negativity, and we’re choosing what will be cultivated in our island paradise.
Our children are kind and good natured, and when we give opportunities for them to show these traits, they’ll be eager to please. In several schools where I presented this idea, the idea grew into an explosion of kindness. We had teachers creating social media posts with positive actions from their students. We received reports of kindness and care being extended to siblings and parents at home.
In parent-teacher-organization meetings, adults took it on and were really seeing each other differently—to the benefit of the children. I have even seen several of my more experienced teachers who have discounted many positive-behavior intervention strategies use this approach, and when they do, they get a renewed perspective on the power of children to make the world a better place.
If you would like to read more about my thoughts about nurturing perseverance in students and educators please go get a copy of my new book, “Recipes for Resilience, Nurturing Perseverance in Students and Educators.” http://amazon.com/dp/1956306439 And, better yet, get your entire staff a copy as well.
Dr. Rob Martinez, “Resiliency Guy” is a lifelong educator and now serves as the Chief Human Resource Officer in the Antioch Unified School District. You can find him on all the social medias as @ResiliencyGuy
Don’t Dwell in Doubt When Your Tide is Out
Don’t dwell in doubt when your tide is out.
From time to time you might feel that your passion is depleted, your work is overlooked, or that you are not making a difference in the world of those you care for. Well, I’d like you to think of it this way. It might be that for the moment, your tide is out. It might be that when you took that moment to measure your success, your ability to make that difference, or to try and see the impacts of your work, you took at look at the shore deplete with water.
This is the time that you simply cannot dwell on the low tide. You must work to understand that this perspective is not the real result of your actions. This view is not the final judgement on your person, passion, or persistence. This view, albeit, real at the moment, is only part true. It probably true that you feel down, may be discouraged, and may be feeling yourself with doubt, but this is not all that the world has for you.
If you give yourself some time to actually take a measurement of your success, I hope you truly reflect on the impact you have made over time. I hope you can see that you didn’t learn everything you needed to know in one moment. I hope you understand that each and every day is part of your journey, part of your growth, part of your failures, and then your abilities to overcome and persevere. Your actual success, much like the tide, will ebb and flow. Will it sometimes look and fill low? Of course. Will the water return so that a real measurement of the bounty of water available over time? Yes.
It is true that for you and your success, you must seek to understand that your tide will rise. You must remember that as you take the time to expand your personal perspective, if you give yourself enough grace to see your worth and understand your growth, you will build on more information, and realize that you rise as well. You ebb and flow, as we all do, which is actually really cool when you think about it.
So, don’t dwell in doubt when your tide is out. Rather, give yourself time. Work to understand the ebb and flow of life. Remember to see your successes when the tide returns, when the water is fresher, and always, always remember that the tide will return.
Dr. Rob Martinez is “Resiliency Guy.” He focuses on empowering students with resilience, working with educators to find results for students through opportunities and access via resilience. He is completing his book, “Lead With Resilience” where he shares his #RecipeForResilience. He is an international speaker, author, and consultant. You can find him @ResiliencyGuy on @Facebook, @Twitter, @Instagram, and on @LinkedIn
I See Your Heart
I See Your Heart
#ISEEYOURHEART
Each moment of our day as we spin through space and time we are bombarded with images, actions, thoughts, and aftereffects that sometimes tries to taint our hearts. We must work to persevere, stay true to ourselves, be the best we believe ourselves to be, and yet, even our own actions are sometimes clouded in the milieu of negativity that falls over all of us like a burial pall.
Thus, it is incumbent upon each of us to see goodness, hope, love, and positive actions through this toxic cloud. We must persist in awareness of the positive intent that is in the world, and to call it out when we see it, feel it, and hear it. It is up to each of us to make palpable the positivity that is ever present in the world, even though that positivity might be felt as pain in another’s heart. It is up to us to recognize it, share it, and support its existence so that we breed more of it in our moments of time spent on this earth.
Sometimes the positivity is grand in nature, and yet, more realistically, it is through people being people, taking care of what needs to occur, and for me, is actionable in a way that supports children.With this sentiment in mind, I must tell all teachers, administrators, support staffs, those that are home with students, and the students themselves, that I see your heart!
To my teacher friends and colleagues: I see your heart each and every time you work to connect, engage, and support your students. I see your heart when you are answering parents’ emails, texts, and messages about their children’s potential success. I see your heart when you are spending billions of hours on lesson planning for virtual engagement, synchronous learning, asynchronous learning, all the while planning for a potential in-person opportunity to meet this year’s students. I see your heart when you are dog-tired, are still trying to get your technology to work so that you can connect the next day with students, and you are reaching out to the Tech Department with mixed results. I see your heart in each and every moment that you are somehow connected to your students through zoom, google classroom, canvas, texts, etc. I see your heart!
To my administrator friends and colleagues: I see your heart each and every time you take action to support your students, their grown-ups, teachers, and support staff. I see your heart when you are working to feed students, employ systems to keep everyone safe, ensure that everyone has access to the technology they need to make this untenable situation work, and as you fight for each and every dollar in your budget to mitigate the problems that have arisen through distance learning. I see your heart in each and every zoom meeting, team meeting, google hangout, that you are engage in with the end goal of making things better for everyone in your realm. I see your heart late at night when you are working to solve technology issues, connect with everyone to offer reassurance, touch base with each other to make sure you haven’t missed an opportunity to create access for students or your team. I see your heart!
To all of the support staff in our educational institutions: I see your heart in the care, compassion, support, and efforts that you take to keep students safe, protected, and moving forward into the unknown. I see your heart when you make that call home, send an email, post messages on the school’s webpage to try and keep everyone informed of the progress of the school. I see your heart in the care you take to use the correct cleaning supplies and protocols, complete each cleaning task as if a life depends on it, and maintain all schools for that one day when children will grace the halls. I see your heart when you await patiently for the zoom, google classroom to start, and your efforts to connect, engage, and support, yes, the student you are assigned to, but all the others who might glance your way during the meeting. I see your heart as you work to feed students, provide and support their technology needs, and work behind the scenes to provide everyone with the items they need to find some modicum of success in this current imperfect world. I see your heart!
To fellow parents, and anyone who is working to support a child or children through this time of turmoil we call distance learning: I see your heart when you work to provide an environment that is conducive to the learning process, even though none of us knows what that actually looks like these days. I see your heart when you work to stay calm, defer to teachers as they connect, engage, and instruct your children. I see your heart when you attempt to stay in contact with the teacher/s so that you can provide support, encouragement, and reassurance to your children. I see your heart when you are exhausted from trying to work at home, trying to take the place of the school system, be a good parent, teacher, and still take care of yourself. I see your heart when at the end of the day you still will gather up your brood, spend some time reading to or with them, and let them know that it was a good day. I see your heart!
To all students: I see your heart each day that you awake and are not allowed to go to school, yet, you brave another attempt at distance learning. I see you heart when you simply want to spend a little time with your best friend, and the only time you can see them is through a video screen. I see your heart when you really want to ask your teacher a question, show them your favorite pet, or laugh at one of their jokes, but your internet is not working, your un-mute button is not working, or your parent needs your laptop for work. I see your heart when you are pouring your efforts into an assignment, and yet, you can’t receive the feedback that you otherwise might from your teacher in person, or figure out a way to submit it to your teacher for review, or as it gets lost in the cloud. I see you heart as it aches to return to school, your friends, your teachers, life as we knew it, and as you hope for a better future. I see your heart!
It is far too easy to be frustrated, mad, upset, and simply angry at the entire ordeal that our children are facing, and yet, where does this get us? How does this help? It doesn’t. So, I suggest that as you go through your day that you work to see people’s hearts. Recognize the challenges they face, see their resolve, see their persistence, see their perseverance, and yes realize that this is resilience in action. Each and every time we can see someone’s heart, we can understand a little better their resolve to keep moving forward, and we each need support in doing so. If you do this I will see your heart too.
Dr. Rob Martinez is a 33-year educator. Known as Resiliency Guy Dr. Rob focuses on supporting each person that he meets with finding a little more joy in life by recognizing their personal resilience and in forging opportunities and access for children. Follow and connect with Dr. Rob through social media, and look for his new book, “Lead With Resilience”.
Passion! What Will Lead You, To Lead Them?
Passion! What will lead you, to lead them?
As another school year is just around the bend, I found myself in reflection on the following: “Passion! What will lead me to lead them?” I heard my dad’s feint voice telling me over and over, “If you follow your passion, you won’t ever feel that you are wasting a day.” He said this to me as a child, as a student, as a parent, and every time I would share with him about the toils of my day as an educator, and now I reflect on these words practically every day.
Quite frankly, I have many personal passions in my life: my wife, my life, my children, my friends, my health, having fun, my pets, my children’s friends, and the list goes on. And, then, I think about my professional passions, which I focus on and include many #educational issues such as: #resilience, #equity, #access for #opportunity, #engagement strategies, #inclusion, #support, #thoughtfulness, #puposeful approaches, #empowerment, and #leadership, to name a few.
So, as all of these ideas are flying through my frontal lobe, and competing for priority status within my mind, it could be overwhelming without employing strategies for reflection, self-accountability, strategizing, planning for actions, and actual follow through. I do this by not simply hoping that I can make a difference and improve the state of these issues in the world, though hope is absolutely needed as a strategy to effect change. I do this by making a determination to actually create an impact in my world with respect to these issues, and then by doing something about my thoughts.
Here are my examples: I think, I conducted research, I write, I speak, I engage about #resilience. I provide my mind with data regarding the lack of #equity and the importance of #opportunities for all children by reading, listening, and tracking the issues that interest me. I learn about #engagement strategies by participating in professional development, staying abreast of the latest in technology, and by communicating to those that have knowledge in my immediate circles, and through social media. Yes, a big thank you to #twitter, #Facebook, #linkedin, #instagram, and to those that seek to share ideas through these social media connections.
I am focused on listening, watching, and learning all of the time. I work to be #inclusive in my work place, remain committed to opportunities to learn about people, and strive to offer #support when I can to all. I work hard to be #purposeful in my words, actions, and deeds, to make a positive difference, and to not place any boundaries in front of others. I seek to #empower each person that I meet to think, to challenge themselves, to build a new skill or reclaim an old one, to take that step towards personal fulfillment, and to make decisions that positively impact them and those in their worlds. Dear reader, I seek to #lead!
Now, I say all this, not to receive a pat on the back, though that would be #awesome! I say this as a way to continue to challenge myself with the aspiration of striving to truly become this person. For the cumulative effects of being this person to those I am passionate about, and improving the work that I am passionate about and focused on, is the goal! If I were to be this person, if I were to strive to become this person, if I am able to get one step closer to being this person, then, I have to believe that the world of others just might be a little bit better, and truly, what loftier goal is there?
So, now, I ask you to consider: “Passion, what will lead you to lead them?” Are you a child, a student, a parent, an educator, a committed individual who wants to change the world? What is your passion? How are you living it? How are you striving to become who you want to be? How are you strategizing and implementing the actions that are part of your goals, you plan, your life? Who is it that you will lead to a better place? And, should you continue to wait to plan, or get started becoming who you want to be?
Caution now, as there is no need to eat the whole apple with one bite! The journey to becoming you, and following your passion, is a trip to be savored one bite at a time. Your steps are each important, and need to be recognized as part of the approach to who you will become. Yet, you do recall that this is a one-time ticket to your life, right? So I truly hope that you make a decision to take that step, think consciously about what you are passionate about, plan just one step, and get moving.
@ResiliencyGuy AKA Dr. Rob, Robert A. Martinez, Ed.D., is currently the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources for the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District. He presents and engages on the importance of “Transformational Resilience” and seeks to build the capacity of those he meets to support the development of #Resilince for all children. Follow him on @Twitter as @ResiliencyGuy or @DrRobM_FSUSD, or on Facebook as “Resiliency Guy”
Recipes For Resilience 