Clark County school superintendent finalist Mike Barton

To Abraham Felix, West Prep was a war zone in 2005 when Mike Barton was named the new principal.

Felix, then in seventh grade, didn’t think much would change at the school, where fights were common, and teachers and students seemed disengaged. “I didn’t care,” he said of the announcement.

But then Felix, now 24, saw “Dr. B” begin to make changes. The teachers he brought in seemed to care about students and wanted to make West Prep better.

“That’s what really impacted me and that’s why I believe he would be a great superintendent,” said Felix, who’s working on a bachelor’s degree and hopes to become a math teacher.

Barton has garnered a wealth of community support for the superintendency, working his way up from first-grade teacher in 1998 to upper management.

He is fixated on academic achievement and data.

Barton worked with employees to launch a graduation tracker tool that identifies students at risk of falling behind. He also supported the franchise school model, which assigns one successful principal to multiple struggling schools, a move that has seen some success.

Moving forward, Barton wants to ensure graduation actually means a mastery of content. He also wants to improve middle school achievement.

But at the forefront of his plan for the superintendency, if chosen to lead the district, is building trust and morale while also building an interdependent relationship with the School Board.

“They should be a really powerful group, and I think they are, but I think they should be the educational experts that other entities come to for those answers,” he said.

While he’s outwardly cordial, Barton insists that he’s made tough choices in his career — and can continue to do so.

“I’ve had to demote people, I’ve had to hold people accountable, and I think that there may be some grudges that exist with some of that that’s occurred,” he said. “But I stand for the right that needs to be done in the system, and the metrics that we need to get.”

A potential obstacle for Barton are his perceived ties to Associate Superintendent Edward Goldman — the head of Employee Management Relations, who was recently accused of favoritism and discrimination by a retiring employee, sparking an investigation. Goldman has resigned from his role as chief negotiator but remains in an associate superintendent role.

But Barton said he has no close connection to Goldman and that he would have no undue influence if he is elevated to the top job.

And if he doesn’t land the job, the father of two district students said he’ll still stay and support the new leader.

“I love this community, I care about this community,” he said. “I want this community to thrive.”

Contact Amelia Pak-Harvey at apak-harvey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4630. Follow @AmeliaPakHarvey on Twitter.