JT,
Last year, Porter expanded by more than 100% by going from 8 airplanes to 20. Therefore, some DEC were hired and some f/o's were upgraded. Now that the expansion is at a more reasonable pace, the preferred method going forward is to promote from within.
As of right now, the last groundschool is all f/o's and Porter is starting an upgrade class for 10 senior f/o's next month.