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MLive Kalamazoo reporter Julie Mack on Portage Superintendent resignation

The Portage School Board has accepted the resignation of Superintendent Ric Perry a month after he was suspended for an “inappropriate relationship” with a district employee and ten days before a due process hearing had been scheduled over possibly terminating Perry’s contract. MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette reporter Julie Mack says the two sides will now move to arbitration.

Mack says Perry wants some financial settlement with the district. She says there will be an arbitration ruling by June 30th. Perry has not denied having an affair, but has said it did not violate board policy.

Mack says it’s rare for a due process hearing to be held for a superintendent. She says school boards usually pay to part ways. But Mack says the Portage School Board does not want to pay another superintendent, having agreed to a settlement with Marsha Wells before she left the Portage School district in 2011.

The name of the person Perry has an “inappropriate relationship” with has not been released. But Mack says the board has promised transparency, and more details are likely to become known.

Mack says Portage has hired a search firm to find a new superintendent. She says the board would like have to have someone on the job by July first. Retired Sturgis Superintendent Rob Olson is currently serving as acting superintendent. He was brought into the Portage district as an assistant superintendent last year.

Gordon Evans became WMUK's Content Director in 2019 after more than 20 years as an anchor, host and reporter. A 1990 graduate of Michigan State, he began work at WMUK in 1996.