School board recognizes hard work
Published 4:13 pm Saturday, February 24, 2018
By Lorenzo Salinas
Board members gave thanks for acts big and small at the regular school board meeting for Port Arthur schools Thursday.
“This has been an extraordinary year, even before all the craziness in 2017,” PAISD trustee Robert Reid said.
Among the district’s accomplishments, Reid listed the tax ratification election that gave employees the highest starting salary in a region 5 school in the area and one that awarded experienced teachers with a “substantial and well-deserved pay raise.”
“Our superintendent recognizes it’s a challenge to work with the schools in our district; but, if you do it we’re going to pay you for it,” Reid said. “For the first time in some time, every school in our district is meeting expectations. That’s a huge accomplishment.”
Reid was referring to the Texas Education Agency’s 2017 accountability ratings, which had all Port Arthur schools meet the state standard — something the district had not achieved since 2013.
The TEA ratings are the metric by which public schools either meet state standards or require improvement.
In addition, Reid readily thanked superintendent Mark Porterie for the work he did out of the office as well as with recovery efforts after Hurricane and Tropical Storm Harvey.
“We had the superintendent working out there with staff and with many people who are not seen but still supervised by our wonderful staff,” he said. “We are back up and running and our superintendent
deserves recognition.”
Reid expressed his gratitude as preamble for the board’s intention to nominate Porterie for the Texas Association of School Boards Superintendent of the Year award.
“We’re going to pitch a fit if you do not win,” Reid said with a laugh.
His sentiments seemed to be in line with other board members as president Donald Frank Sr. and vice president Debra Ambroise voiced their support of Porterie’s nomination.
Frank claimed Porterie had already won the award as far as he was concerned.
“I will say thank you, but the award has already been given — to have you all even suggesting you’re nominating me for the award,” Porterie said. “It’s already happened. It’s an honor to have board members nominate you and to already feel the way you do. Nothing could have happened without you.”
On a somber note, Porterie acknowledged the loss of life in the Valentine’s Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida where 17 people were killed. He used it to reiterate PAISD’s continuing mission for student and staff safety.
“We’re doing everything in our power to keep our children safe, our staff safe — we’re designing our schools for safety,” Porterie said.
With several of the schools in the district currently under some form of construction or renovation, Porterie said crews are taking it as an opportunity to implement additional safety features and practices.
As an example, the students attending Tyrrell Elementary have all recently been moved from the portable buildings they had been in to one central building that had been completed. The security measures for one building are necessarily easier to implement than for several smaller ones.
“We want everyone under one roof. Our hope — our prayer — is that everyone in the district stays safe,” he said.
Porterie asked the patience and understanding of parents in the implementation of some of these precautions. He noted that whenever school personnel asks them to make appointments or to sign in before they are allowed in a school building, it is done with the intent of keeping the students safe.
“It will never be good enough because it is done for the safety of our children,” Porterie said. “We want parents to understand what we ask of them… We’re asking for the support of the entire community, especially the parents.”
