STAFF PHOTO BY DAN PARKER Superintendent's sandals Dr. Sharon Doughty shows off the sandals presented to her as a welcometo island-life gift by the Port Aransas Independent School District Board of Trustees on Thursday, Dec. 11. Trustees had just voted to offer Doughty a contract to be the district's next superintendent. The Port Aransas Independent School District Board of Trustees on Thursday, Dec. 11, voted unanimously to offer a three-year contract officially to Dr. Sharon Doughty for the position of superintendent.

The contract would start the new superintendent off with an annual salary of $107,000. And the school board sweetened the pot when Rick Adams, the board's president, handed Doughty a gift-wrapped pair of pink-and-gold sandals as a welcome-to-island-life offering.

Doughty thanked the board - both for hiring her and for the sandals - and said she feels "absolutely great" about her new job. She said she plans to submit her resignation as superintendent of Poteet ISD on Monday, Dec. 15. She said her last day on the Poteet job will be Dec. 19, and her first day at PAISD will be Jan. 12.

The board's selection STAFF PHOTO BY DAN PARKER Dr. Sharon Doughty (front and center), applauds Brundrett Middle School service-learning class students being recognized at a meeting of the Port Aransas Independent School District Board of Trustees on Dec. 11. About an hour later, the board voted to offer a contract to Doughty to be the district's next superintendent. Doughty was one of about 60 candidates who applied for the position. Working partly through a search firm, trustees spent more than four months searching for someone to replace Billy Wiggins, who left PAISD to become superintendent in Salado, north of Austin. At right, is Carol Moffett, president of Texas School Solutions, the Houston search firm hired by PAISD. After the Port Aransas trustees voted, Doughty was presented with a frosted carrot cake decorated with the words, "Welcome aboard Dr. Doughty."

"We are thrilled that Dr. Doughty is going to be joining us as our superintendent," Adams said. "We can't get her here fast enough."

In an interview on Friday, Dec. 12, Doughty said she hadn't signed the contract yet but planned on doing it soon.

The superintendent's position was vacated after Billy Wiggins resigned in August to take over as superintendent of Salado ISD, about 40 miles north of Austin.

The board acted on Nov. 20 to name Doughty the sole finalist for the superintendent position after a search firm sifted through about 60 applications for the job. Acting according to state law, trustees then had to wait 21 days before formally offering a contract to Doughty.

Doughty's move from Poteet to Port Aransas has her making a transition from a property-poor school district to a property-rich district. But Doughty said it won't be a hard transition to make. Port Aransas ISD must watch its money as closely as a property-poor district because state Robin Hood laws force propertyrich districts like Port Aransas to give away much of their tax revenue to the state for redistribution to poorer districts.

"There isn't an abundance of funds in this (Port Aransas) district," Doughty said.

A 1-A district, Port Aransas ISD, has a current annual budget of about $5 million. Poteet ISD, a 3-A district, has a budget of about $13 million.