The Ann Arbor school board is interviewing six candidates to become the next superintendent of Ann Arbor Public Schools this week. AnnArbor.com is profiling each of the candidates after their interviews.

As a former football player and coach, Manuel Rodriguez said he takes a lot of the hard-nosed work ethic he learned on the gridiron into the job of running schools.

During his interview with the Ann Arbor school board, Rodriguez said he’s experienced in turning around under-performing schools and dealing with impoverished school populations. He said his main goal is to provide a top educational experience no matter what the challenges facing each student.

“All means all. All means all kids,” he said. “It doesn’t say that we’re going to improve learning for this group of students. We need to make sure that all of our efforts are aligned to improve efforts of all students.”

Rodriguez was the second candidate for the AAPS superintendent position to interview with the school board. Patricia Green was interviewed Tuesday. The board also interviewed Shelley Redinger and William DeFrance Wednesday. Two more candidates will be interviewed Friday, and the board plans to select finalists after that.

Rodriguez is currently the assistant superintendent in charge of middle schools for Baltimore County Public Schools in Maryland. Before coming to BCPS, he served as a superintendent of the Roswell Independent School District in New Mexico and worked as a teacher for more than a decade. BCPS has an enrollment of about 105,000 students.

Rodriguez holds an undergraduate degree from New Mexico State University, along with a master’s of education degree with a focus as an instructional specialist and a doctorate degree in educational administration with a minor in curriculum and instruction.

He said he got into education to serve students and will do whatever it takes to make sure his district is providing the best education that it can. This might mean doing interventions at a school to turn it around or increasing standards, which may prove to be unpopular decisions, Rodriguez said.

“In the morning when you get up and you look in the mirror and get ready to face the world, you have to have the person looking back at you be comfortable with the decisions you make,” he said. “Every decision I make is in the best interest of students.”

Rodriguez said he looks to continual improvement in student achievement as the measure of whether a school district is effective in its work. He said he believes closing the achievement gap between different student demographics will be one of the most critical issues in education during the next five years.

While working as an assistant superintendent in BCPS, Rodriguez said he has been exposed to numerous different cultural backgrounds and languages among students. He said working with people of different cultural, racial and socioeconomic backgrounds is one of his strengths.

“In all my experiences as an educator and administrator, the Lord has driven me and put me in a position to help others and that is my mission, that is my belief and that is my passion,” he said. “I believe that I have worked with a variety of social, cultural and racial diversity groups and that’s where my strength is.”

Rodriguez, a former football player and coach, said the most important qualities he looks for in a colleague are loyalty and teamwork.

He said he would work build up the school board's trust in him. He said listening is the most important thing a superintendent can do when coming into a new district.

“It’s critical to listen and a superintendent should be an active listener to find out how to support and help (people),” he said. “... I’m getting much, much better at that over the last five years or so. Twenty-five years ago, if I had listened to my wife much more I would be a heckuva lot smarter now.”

Kyle Feldscher covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com.