The son of the deputy superintendent of Okaloosa County schools was hired for a month earlier this year to identify steps the district could take to improve school security immediately without pending any money.
Jason McKinley was awarded a $4,800 service contract to perform “an initial review that consists of a thorough security assessment of all facilities, starting with schools (as they would be the primary targets in an attack) and then moving on to other, lesser important facilities as needed,” according to the April 30 agreement.
Superintendent of Schools Mary Beth Jackson said McKinley was hired for the jobbased on his background and because of the fee he was willing to accept.
“We had talked to several people … but my Lord, they were so expensive,” Jackson said.
One of the vendors offered to do a security assessment for $50,000, but Jackson said she knew the district couldn’t afford to pay that much. Eventually, someone suggested Deputy Superintendent Kaye McKinley’s son, who is a former Marine who contracts with a private security firm.
Kaye McKinley said she couldn’t go into details about her son’s prior experience, but that he specializes in “threat assessment” and “conflict analysis.”
“We get complacent in our surroundings, whether it’s a school district or a business … We think everybody’s coming through the front door,” McKinley said. “(People like Jason) look at it in a whole different light. They look for weak perimeters.”
She said she didn’t worry about contracting with her son because she knew he was one of only a few people in the community with that particular skill.
“What he does is totally separate from what I do,” she said.
To cover all the bases, Jackson said she asked School Board Attorney Jeff McInnis about the contract with Jason McKinley before she pursued it.
McInnis confirmed Tuesday that it wasn’t against district policy to initiate contracts with family members of district employees.
The contract with McKinley was amended on more than one occasion and varied from a $10,000, two-month contract to the final $4,800 agreement. The $10,000 proposal was pulled from the School Board’s May 28 meeting agenda at the last minute.
“He did what we needed him to do and at that point I thought it would be redundant to do more,” Jackson said of the decision.
Under School Board policy at the time, board members did not need to approve a contract if it was less than $5,000. Any amount above that using money from the district’s general fund required their approval.
Board members voted earlier this month to lower the contract amount that doesn’t require their approval to $2,500.
The school district also didn’t need to seek multiple bids for the work because it was less than $5,000.
McKinley’s contract was drawn about three months after the School Board instructed the district’s facilities director to oversee a safety committee to look into potential security shortfalls at schools following the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
The committee includes school resource officers and district maintenance personnel. Their work is ongoing.
To date, Jackson said their suggestions to improve security total about $400 million.
“The safety committee primarily looked at things like fencing and door locks,” she said. “Jason’s job was (finding) what we can do right now with nothing.”
Jackson declined to go into details about all McKinley’s suggestions, citing security concerns. She did say he looked into issues not covered by the safety committee. For example, he advised it would help to cut back bushes in front of schools, ensure all facilities have only one entry point and that school administrators break up routines at schools.
“I wish he could have done more,” Jackson said. “He was so good.”
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Katie Tammen at 850-315-4440 or ktammen@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @KatieTnwfdn.