In the run-up to a Thursday meeting of Monroe County School District's superintendent search committee, opinions are split regarding Superintendent Jesus Jara and minimum qualifications to be considered.</p><p>At the School Board level, where the qualifications were approved, Chairman John Dick and Vice Chairman Andy Griffiths both said Jara should be considered, despite not having served a full three years as a principal - a job qualification approved by the board.</p><p>At the committee level, member Steve Pribramsky, who served one four-year term on the School Board, told the Keynoter it's crystal clear to him that Jara shouldn't be in the running.</p><p>"He won't make my shortlist," Primbrasky said of Jara. "How can we do anything else? I read, 'with a minimum of three years as principal,' as if you don't have three years, you're out."</p><p>Jara, who was appointed to the Florida Keys post last year by Gov. Rick Scott, served as a principal for two years and 10 months at a Massachusetts high school.</p><p>Griffiths, like Dick, said Jara's time as superintendent should outweigh the other deficiency and expressed concern with how the committee will handle the subject without any clear direction from the board. "I think the biggest gorilla in the room that I'm worried about is the committee having to wrestle with that qualification without clear direction from the board," Griffiths said, "and dismissing the current superintendent."</p><p>Dick said he didn't feel the need to provide the committee with direction and suggested that dismissing Jara based on his experience as a principal would be a big mistake.</p><p>"If the committee did that," he said, "I think it would show the committee is seriously flawed."</p><p>The search committee meets at 9 a.m. on Thursday at Marathon High School; Pribramsky said the goal would be to separate the 56 applicants into two groups-qualified and not qualified - then continue to identify semi-finalists for board consideration.</p><p>This is the first time in the Keys the superintendent has been hired by the school board; a 2010 referendum changed that post to an appointed position from an elected superintendent model.</p><p>Randy Acevedo was the last elected superintendent, elected in 2008. The following year, then-Gov. Charlie Crist removed Acevedo from office following his indictment on three official-misconduct charges. Acevedo was convicted of the felonies and remains on probation.</p><p>Crist then appointed Jara's predecessor Joe Burke, who left last year to head Lee County schools in Southwest Florida. Earlier this year, Jara submitted his name for the Palm Beach County superintendent post, but didn't make the final cut of candidates for that position, which pays $225,000 per year.</p><p>Jara currently earns $135,000 per year.