CAPE GIRARDEAU DISTRICT SEES ADMINISTRATIVE SHIFT, NEW FACES

The Cape Girardeau School District will see a major administrative shift this school year when a number of new building principals assume their duties.

A total of six administrative positions were vacated when officials retired or resigned last spring, said Associate superintendent David Giles. Long-time Cape Girardeau educators Barbara Blanchard and Jim Watkins retired at the end of the 1997-98 school year, making way for new faces to take over their roles at Washington and Franklin elementary schools. The two were well-respected by educators and district patrons alike and were difficult to replace, said Giles.

Also leaving the school district last spring were John Eck, Louis J. Schulz School principal, Gerald Landewee, Jefferson Elementary School principal, and Sheldon Tyler, Alternative Education Center coordinator. All three accepted administrative positions in other school districts.

An assistant principal was also hired to fill the role previously held by Mark Cook at Alma Schrader Elementary School. Cook, has been named principal of Jefferson Elementary School beginning the 1998-99 school year.

Cook has worked 18 years in the Cape Girardeau school system. He taught sixth grade for 17 years at Franklin Elementary School before last year, when he began working mornings as assistant principal at Alma Schrader and afternoons as a remedial math teach at Jefferson. He is a native of the Patton area and received his bachelor of science degree from Illinois State University. He completed both his master's and specialist's degrees at Southeast Missouri State University.

Cook's former position was filled by Sydney Herbst, who worked as a fourth grade teacher at Alma Schrader from 1987-96 before moving to May Greene Elementary. Giles said Herbst is a "resourceful and remarkably successful teacher" who should have an easy transition into her new role.

Pamela Barnes will replace Blanchard as the new Washington Elementary principal. Barnes has worked in the school district one year as a sixth grade teacher at Jefferson Elementary School. She previously worked as an elementary school teacher in Columbia three years. This is her first administrative position.

Giles said Barnes' term will end when Washington closes in May. However, she will most likely assume a different administrative role in the school district as a result of natural attrition and growth, he said.

"A number of opportunities will arise through normal attrition," he said. "Particularly, the need for an assistant principal will be there as Jefferson grows, and the new school will be a school that could likely be big enough to need a part time assistant principal."

Julie Davenport, who most recently worked as an education instructor at Southeast Missouri State University, was hired to replacing Watkins at Franklin Elementary. Davenport is an experienced administrator who has was principal at various schools in Little Rock, Ark., for nine years.

Danyne "Deena" Simmons will be coordinator of the alternative school and A+ program for the 1998-99 school year. Simmons, a graduate of Central High School and Southeast Missouri State University, worked from 1993 until last May as the behavioral disorders teacher at Schulz school. She has also taught in the Meadow Heights and Kelly school districts.

Rob Huff, who has been a Cape Girardeau schools educator 12 years, is the new Schultz principal. Huff was a Central Junior High math teacher from 1985-97, when he became principal at Caruthersville High School.

Giles said the new hirings makes the ratio of female-to-male elementary administrators 3 1/2-to-3 in Cape Girardeau schools, Cape Girardeau elementary buildings have historically been headed by female principals, he said.

"It has only been recently that there have been more males than females," he said. "Most recently, the trend nationally has been to more women in elementary schools."