‘I am going to do my job'

Oklahoma City Public Schools Superintendent John Porter won't be leaving the district anytime soon if he has his way, despite the fact that the school board is expected to discuss whether to suspend or fire him at a Monday morning meeting.

In a letter provided exclusively to The Oklahoman on Saturday, Porter defended himself against accusations brought by School Board Chairman Cliff Hudson and affirmed his intention to stay and improve schools.

"A few months ago the school board chairman asked me to resign,” Porter says in the letter. "I told him, ‘No!' I am here to serve the children of Oklahoma City and I am going to do my job.”

But Hudson said Porter's letter doesn't include the context of that conversation.

"A couple months ago, after receiving a set of very harsh comments from principals which John and I reviewed together at the same time, I did have a private discussion with him as to whether he wanted to think about resigning from his position sooner or later, with no timeline put on it. And he is accurate, he declined,” Hudson said.

Hudson, who spoke to The Oklahoman from a Houston airport Saturday, said he does not have the authority to demand a superintendent's resignation.

Previously, the Oklahoma City School District hired former U.S. attorney Robert McCampbell to investigate allegations of "inappropriate behavior” by Porter.

Hudson said Porter has refused to discuss the investigation's results with the board since before Christmas. Porter said in his letter that he first received a copy of the investigation Thursday.

Porter's letter was sent to The Oklahoman by Terry Abbott, whom Porter has retained for his media relations expertise. Abbott is a former press secretary for the U.S. Department of Education and is the current press secretary for the Houston Independent School District.

Porter addressed two main allegations in his letter, both of which he said are false.

One is that he circumvented the bidding process to buy Wireless Generation, a computer program to help children learn to read.

He wrote, "I understood that we followed the very same selection process used by the Oklahoma State Department of Education,” which he said has approved the use of the program.

Porter also addressed allegations that he sou