CHICAGO -- Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder Monday named Detroit chief financial officer Jack Martin as the new emergency manager of Detroit Public Schools.
Outgoing EM Roy Roberts will leave after two years in the job.
Roberts announced in the spring that he wanted to step down.
The state has controlled DPS, which is plagued by falling enrollment and chronic deficits, since early 2009. Martin will be the district’s third emergency manager.
“I don’t think we could find a better person to come in and fill Roy’s shoes,” Snyder said at a press conference at a local elementary school. “Scores are improving, results are improving, but the main problem is that we need to keep it up,” he said. “We need to stabilize the city.”
Martin will leave his post as Detroit CFO, where he has been since spring 2012 under Mayor Dave Bing. He served as CFO of the U.S. Department of Education under President George W. Bush from 2002 to 2005. He worked as emergency manager of Highland Park Schools before becoming Detroit CFO.
Martin was also a member of the state-appointed review team that scrutinized Detroit’s finances for more than three months before deciding it was in a state of financial emergency.
Roberts has helped bring down the district’s deficit to $78 million from $327 million in 2011. The bulk of the deficit was erased with a $200 million deficit borrowing.
