Superintendent, board both judge him ‘accomplished’
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
Superintendent Mark Porter’s self-evaluation is, by and large, in line with how the five-member elected Monroe County School Board gauged the overall performance of the School District’s chief executive.
Every year Porter and board members complete an extensive evaluation of the superintendent’s performance in nine areas of leadership; the evaluation uses a five-point scale.
The nine areas covered are leadership and district culture; policy and governance; communications and community relations; organizational management; human resources management; instructional leadership; curriculum planning and development; values and ethics of leadership; and labor relations.
In ascending order, the five-points correspond to ratings of ineffective, developing, proficient, accomplished and, at the top of the scale, distinguished.
Porter gave himself a 3.78. The average score from board members was a 3.25 although District 3 member Ed Davidson gave Porter the lowest score at 1.85.
The board collectively deemed Porter slightly better than “proficient.” For purposes of the evaluation, proficiency means, “The performance of the superintendent consistently fulfills standards resulting in quality work that affects district goals and priorities in a positive manner.”
From Davidson’s perspective, Porter is in the ballpark of “developing: The performance of the superintendent occasionally or sporadically falls below standards, resulting in less than quality work performance that needs improvement to meet district goals and priorities.”
Board member John Dick gave Porter a 3.37. Board Chairman Ron Martin meted out the highest score of 3.68. Robin-Smith Martin, district 1 rep, gave Porter a 3.65. Chairman Emeritus Andy Griffiths gave the superintendent a 3.62.
Some of Davidson’s more excoriating remarks about Porter’s performance came in regards to the negotiation of a 2013-14 contract with leadership of the United Teachers of Monroe union.
The protracted process including more than two dozen meetings and a confusing back-and-forth with the Florida Department of Education about whether using state-mandated teacher raise money to erase previously enacted furlough days was an appropriate use of funds.
“The superintendent clearly does not seem self-reflective enough to grasp his entire negotiation strategy was an unmitigated—and largely avoidable—train wreck, and a calamity broadly devastating to staff morale!” Davidson wrote.
He noted that Porter’s leadership resulted in Monroe County being “the last district in the entire state to come to resolution,” on employment contracts.
On the disagreement with state officials, “The superintendent refused to heed feedback from the governor’s office that he could not use the raise money to buy back furlough dates, and insisted he would craft a way to force the state to allow it…” Davidson wrote.
In his comments, Porter wrote that the 2014-15 contact, which is still being negotiated, will be delivered, “hopefully in a more timely and less complicated manner.”
Porter wrote that he is “confident” the deal will be done by Dec. 30.
Dick said he’s hopeful Porter can follow through on a new annual deal with teachers, this one slated to include performance pay based on peer evaluation and student test scores.
“It looks like negotiations are going well,” he said. “They’re talking like they’re going to have a deal.”
The board adopted the most recent evaluations at an Oct. 28 session at Marathon Middle/High School.
The entire evaluation document is available at www.keysschools.com.
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Wow…..very scary to read all columns and opinions are so strongly democratic based. Do yourselves a favor and read Atlas Shrugged by Anne Ryand. Secondly, get a real education. There are two words that I love to say to democrats, Sarah Palin. I am a libertarian and left communist canada for the free usa….unfortunately fear, weakness, and people who love the govt to do all for them may come to pass here as well. Do yourselves a turn and go to Italy, England, France to see how well they are doing….unions time is over, bad teachers should be fired and look at crime….does our black president have a solution to african americans filling our jails and prime time news. Wake up people.