Superintendent fires coach, quits
The school district’s superintendent fired Española Valley High School head boys basketball coach Richard Martinez on Wednesday afternoon — and then the superintendent resigned a few hours later. It was not immediately clear if Bobbie Gutierrez’s termination of Martinez would remain on the books, given her own situation.
The Journal was able to confirm that Martinez was fired by Gutierrez midafternoon Wednesday. But, by sundown, Gutierrez — who has been under duress from the community because of her handling of the Martinez situation — tendered her resignation to the Española Public Schools board of directors some four hours later.
That resignation was set to go into effect May 6, but the board, by a 3-2 vote, decided to place Gutierrez on leave effective immediately and appoint an interim superintendent. Associate Superintendent Myra Martinez will be Española’s interim superintendent.
Gutierrez had been under fire for putting Martinez, Española Valley High’s very successful, but often controversial, head coach, on leave 10 days after Martinez led the Sundevils to the Class 5A state championship. At a school board meeting Wednesday night, over a dozen people voiced their support of Martinez to the board, said board president Pablo Lujan. The crowd cheered when the board voted to accept the resignation of Gutierrez, a former Santa Fe Public Schools superintendent.
The district had put Martinez on leave pending the outcome of an investigation into “accusations” against the volatile coach, who has led the high school to a pair of state titles. Martinez said he was put on leave for leading a team prayer at the Pit during last month’s state tournament. But his disciplinary methods for players on the team also reportedly came under scrutiny by the district.