Kelly says finance director may stay

The superintendent wants Sara Perez, now out of the running for a Hernando County position, to get a promotion and a raise.

By BARBARA BEHRENDT

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 8, 2000

INVERNESS -- Superintendent Pete Kelly has teetered close to losing another member of his leadership staff.

Finance director Sara Perez was selected recently as the top choice among three applicants who sought to lead the Hernando County schools' finance department.

But Perez is no longer under consideration for the job, according to Hernando Superintendent John Sanders. The Hernando school system is looking for more applicants.

Perez has served as Citrus' finance director for the past year. Kelly is recommending that she receive a promotion and a pay increase.

Kelly said this week that he expected Perez had turned down the Hernando job, and he hoped to retain her. On Tuesday, he will recommend that the School Board promote her to the position of executive director and approve a $3,000 pay raise.

Perez could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The last several organizational structure changes proposed by Kelly to the board have not been accepted. Earlier this spring, he tried to shuffle several positions so that he wouldn't have to fill the executive director job that Roberta Long will vacate at the end of the month. She is returning to a principalship.

Kelly also wanted to change the job description for his new assistant superintendent, Linda Kelley, when she comes on board July 1.

But the board rejected both of those plans.

Perez has been somewhat in the limelight lately. Tom Mullins, a candidate seeking to oust Kelly in the September Republican primary, has criticized the district's financial picture. While Perez discounts Mullins' assertion that the district is headed toward bankruptcy, she has said that she is trying to even out the school system's roller-coaster-like budget.

In addition to losing Long to a principalship, Kelly's current assistant, David Hickey, is also going back to being a principal. Hickey also is a candidate for superintendent.

-- Staff writer Robert King contributed to this report.

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