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Philadelphia School District Announces First Finalist For Superintendent's Job

By Mike Denardo

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The School District of Philadelphia has released the name of one of the two finalists for the superintendent's job.

The first candidate to be revealed is Pedro Martinez. Martinez is currently the deputy superintendent of the school district that includes Las Vegas, which is the fifth-largest district in the nation.

The 42-year-old Martinez is a CPA with a finance background, who previously served as a regional superintendent in Chicago.  Martinez is scheduled to be in Philadelphia on Monday, to meet with teachers in the afternoon and then at a public forum Monday night at 6:30 at school headquarters.

The second candidate, whose name the district hasn't released yet, will be at a similar public meeting Tuesday night.

School Reform Commission search committee chair Wendell Pritchett says the commission is expected to hire a new superintendent "very soon" after those two community meetings.

Any superintendent will not only have to deal with the district's dire financial troubles, but with the SRC's sweeping proposal to downsize the central office and decentralize school management.

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