Keys Schools Superintendent’s new contract up for approval

By next week, Monroe County Schools Superintendent Mark Porter will likely have a new contract guaranteeing him the job through July 31, 2020, with a $15,000-a-year raise plus a $650 per month car allowance.

Porter, the school district’s first hired superintendent, came aboard in 2012 from Minnesota, beating out the interim schools chief Jesus Jara who wanted to stay on.

A proposed contract extension between the School Board and Porter is up for a vote next week, and it turns out the five board members won’t have to decide whether a simple majority of three or a super majority of four should have the power to fire him without cause.

That proposed stipulation is not in the latest draft.

“He told me he was taking that out and he wants to have everybody on board,” said Board Chairman John Dick, of Porter. “We already had a pointed argument about it at the last meeting. I don’t think there will be any problem.”

Porter, who couldn’t be reached for comment Friday, had initially preferred the super majority while Vice Chairman Andy Griffiths said it gives too much power to the board’s minority, or as he called it “a gang of two.”

The board meets Tuesday at Marathon Middle High School, 350 Sombrero Beach Road, starting with a workshop at 3 p.m. and then a 5 p.m. regular meeting.

Porter had been job-hunting last year, making the final cuts for the superintendent’s job in Sarasota and St. Johns, but he scrapped his search by the year’s end, saying he wanted to stay in the Florida Keys.

Portable classrooms cost $396K

Gerald Adams Elementary on Stock Island needs seven portable classrooms installed for two years, according to school district staff, at a cost of $396,140, which would include delivery and removal by Mobile Modular Management Corporation.

The board will vote on the proposed item Tuesday.

Seven portables are needed due to the removal of two existing portables and the demolition of the rear existing building as art of the construction of a new $32 million elementary school, according to staff.

This story was originally published January 8, 2017 at 2:34 PM with the headline "Keys Schools Superintendent’s new contract up for approval."