On Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, Dr. Marty Pollio, the JCPS superintendent, announced he will retire at the end of this school year. 

In a letter to all JCPS personnel, Pollio explained he had given the school board a three-year commitment beginning in 2022. 

“This is the final year of that three-year agreement. I had planned since that time for the 2024-25 school year to be my final one,” Pollio said. 

His last day will be July 1, 2025. Leaving behind a mixed legacy, Pollio will have served as superintendent for eight years at the time of his retirement. In his letter, Pollio explained that his tenure as superintendent has lasted longer than 96% of the superintendents in the Council of the Great City Schools. During his tenure, he dealt with a severe bus driver shortage, the Covid-19 pandemic and multiple revisions to the student assignment plan. 

Prior to his retirement announcement, Pollio’s role as superintendent came under fire when calls for his resignation began in August of last year, due to the “transportation disaster” that occurred, delaying the start of the 2023-24 school year by almost a week. In April of this year, the Louisville NAACP called on Pollio to resign. 

“The district needs a change in leadership, therefore, the Louisville branch NAACP is calling for the resignation or dismissal of Superintendent Marty Pollio,” said president of the Louisville branch Raoul Cunningham in an April press conference. 

Following the transportation issues, JCPS controversially eliminated busing for most magnet and traditional schools, claiming the plan passed Racial Equity Analysis Protocol (REAP) evaluations. Two members of the JCPS Community Racial Equity Analysis Protocol Committee told LPM in March, however, contested the district’s claim that the plan passed REAP tests. 

Pollio was also recently named in a lawsuit filed by Kimberly Petty, where he was added as a defendant. JCPS bus driver Aaron Helton struck Petty after apparently running a red light last September. The lawsuit claims that Pollio and the district failed to run a national background check or require a drug test after the crash, which is district policy. 

Pollio officially became JCPS’ Superintendent on April 1, 2018, after serving as the acting superintendent for one year after former Superintendent Dr. Donna Hargens resigned. 

Pollio began his career in JCPS in 1997 as a social studies teacher at Shawnee High School, where he also served as the head basketball coach. He later moved to Waggener High School and continued to teach before becoming an assistant principal. He then became the principal of Jeffersontown High School, leading the school from 2007-2015. He changed schools again, becoming the principal of Doss High School until July 2, 2017, when he was appointed as acting superintendent. 

Despite growing up in Richmond, Virginia, where his father was the head basketball coach for Virginia Commonwealth University, Pollio is no stranger to Louisville. Born in the city in 1971, he and his family moved around for his father’s coaching jobs. After graduating high school, he studied social studies education at Indiana University (IU), where he worked as a team manager under men’s basketball head coach Bobby Knight from 1998-1993. 

After graduating from IU, he served as an assistant coach at Eastern Kentucky University, where he received his master’s degree. He came back to Louisville in 1997, beginning his teaching career and later receiving a doctorate from the University of Louisville in 2012. 

During his time as superintendent, Pollio oversaw the development of the Academies of Louisville, which have seen post-secondary readiness increase to 78%, up from 50% in 2017 when he became acting Superintendent. He has also overseen the building of multiple new schools and a new district-wide K-8 reading and math curriculum and led the board as they overhauled the student assignment plan in 2022, allowing more opportunities for West End students to attend school closer to home. 

Under Pollio, JCPS has also seen the addition of new schools, like Echo Trail Middle School, William H. Perry Elementary School and J. Blaine Hudson Middle School as a part of his Future State of JCPS plan. Six other schools are set to begin construction, as well. The plan has also included major renovations for schools including Central and Fairdale High, that have already been completed or are underway. The budget the district has set aside for new construction and renovations is between 150 and 180 million dollars. Five million dollars has also been set aside to upgrade athletic facilities, some of which have already taken place. 

In 2021, the Kentucky Association for School Administrators named Pollio the 2022 Kentucky Superintendent of the Year. Pollio won this award after leading JCPS, Kentucky’s largest school district, through the COVID-19 pandemic and transitioning to virtual learning.

However, during the 2024 legislative session, the General Assembly created a task force to evaluate the effectiveness of JCPS. The goal of the task force is to decide if the state’s largest school district should be split up, a proposal that Pollio publicly opposed. 

“The highest devastation would be those from our most marginalized communities, without a doubt, and probably put this community and this district back five or more decades,” Pollio said at a school board meeting in March.

Since 2017, the JCPS graduation rate has grown from 81.6% to 87%, an all-time high for the district. The graduation gap between African American students and white students is 2.4%, a little under half of what it was during the 2017-2018 school year (5%). The four-year graduation rate for African American students is also at its highest percentage, 86.5%.

However, enrollment in the district reached the lowest it’s been during Pollio’s tenure in the 2023 school year. Total student membership was 95,076 in 2020 but steadily decreased post-pandemic and was at 93,418 in the 2023 school year. 

“Although there have been challenges over my tenure, no one can ever question my passion, fight, and love for Jefferson County Public Schools,” Pollio said. “Although I am announcing my retirement for the end of this school year, I want you all to know that I will not let up in my passion for this district over the next nine months.”

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