By JOHN L. GUERRA Citizen Staff

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Sigsbee Charter School doesn't exist yet but it's already a subject of debate in the School Board meeting room.

First, should the school district lease or sell the school to the Navy for $10 or ask for market price?

Because owning the property gives the Navy and the Sigsbee Charter School the ability to obtain loans and grants more easily, Pedro Fraga, the district's executive director of business and fiscal services, urged the board to turn the property over to the Sigsbee Charter School organizers.

"We were going to lease it to them," Fraga told the board. "When it comes to ... money and grants related to the military, it gives them an advantage to be the property owner."

Members quibbled over the price.

"We would do a disservice to our constituents to let it go for 10 bucks," board member Debra Walker said.

But John Dick likes the low price. "I can't see having to charge the Navy; this is a Navy town," he said.

Second, should teachers be leased from the school district or would Sigsbee Charter School hire its own teachers?

Third, will the charter school have more luck getting grants and other funding if they lease or own the school property?

This is a big issue for Leon Fowler, president of United Teachers of Monroe, the union that represents public school teachers.

"Our employees [can] work there, as long as the wages and working conditions in our contract are upheld," Fowler said.

"If they want to lease my teachers, then there has to be a requirement that they have to make the same salary they make here, the same benefits they make here."

Fowler said he's worried that the Sigsbee charter school won't maintain the pay and benefits in times of financial hardship.

"They did the bait and switch in Big Pine," Fowler said of Big Pine Academy's charter contract with district teachers. "They did a conversion to a charter and teachers lived under our contract, Florida retirement system benefits and all that," he told the board. "But they couldn't sustain that."

These and other questions will take some time to iron out, so the board decided to wait another year before changing Sigsbee Elementary School into the K-8 charter school.

"That means Sigsbee Elementary School will continue to operate as a public school for 2009-2010," Schools Superintendent Randy Acevedo said. "Sigsbee charter will start in 2010-2011."

Board chairman

In a surprise move, board member Andy Griffiths, with his experience lobbying the Legislature and membership in various statewide school board associations, became the next School Board chairman.

In a loose agreement to create opportunities for each board member to serve as chairman, board member John Dick was next in line, but outgoing board vice chairman Duncan Mathewson moved to appoint Griffiths. "Mr. Griffiths has been around a long time," Mathewson said. "He has a lot of experience, not only here but elsewhere [in the state]."

With Griffiths as chairman, Acevedo will have a board member leading meetings who repeatedly has said he's against micromanaging the superintendent.

jguerra@keysnews.com