EIGHT FILE FOR CAPE BOARD OF EDUCATION

Eight candidates will vie for positions on the Cape Girardeau Board of Education in the April 6 election.

Two incumbents and six challengers will compete for three, three-year school board positions. The filing period for school board elections in Missouri closed at 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Business manager Dr. Steve Del Vecchio was surprised by the number of candidates. "This is the largest slate of candidates since I've been here," he said.

Terms of the Rev. William Bird and Bob Blank expire in April. In December, incumbent Steve Wright resigned from the board to accept a position in the school district. His term also will expire in April.

Also competing for school board seats are Gary L. McIntyre, Andrew Ostrowski, Marty Clay, Tina Trickey, Sharon Mueller and Debra Mitchell-Braxton. All but Ostrowski are seeking their first public positions. Ostrowski made an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination to the U.S. Senate in August.

Bird, who will complete his first term on the board in April, is pastor of the Greater Dimension Church of God in Christ in Cape Girardeau. He and his wife, Rose Mary, have five children.

Blank is completing his second full term on the board. He was appointed to the board in April 1995 to fill an unexpired term. He is president of Bi-State Oil Co. and a former member of the Trinity Lutheran school board.

McIntyre is the store manager at Plaza Tire in Cape Girardeau. He and his wife, Barbara, have a son who attends Alma Schrader Elementary School.

Ostrowski has lived in Cape Girardeau since 1994 and is pursuing a master's degree in public administration at Southeast Missouri State University. He and fiancee Christine Monier plan to marry next month.

Clay, assistant registrar at Southeast Missouri State University, moved to Cape Girardeau in 1996. He is a retired Army officer. He and his wife, Evelyn, have two children who attend Alma Schrader Elementary School.

Mueller, a dental hygienist, moved to Cape Girardeau in 1998. She and husband, Ken, have a daughter who attends Alma Schrader Elementary School and a son who attends Central Junior High School.

Mitchell-Braxton is director of the Project Upward Bound program at Southeast Missouri State University. She is a native of Cape Girardeau and married to Dr. Frank Braxton. Their son and daughter attend Clippard Elementary School.+

Trickey is a hairdresser at The O'Haira. She is a Cape Girardeau native who returned to the area with her husband, Jim, in 1996. She has two stepsons who attended Central High School and a daughter.