A three-member team from the Missouri School Board Association will lead a forum tonight to determine what qualities Cape Girardeau School District patrons want in their next superintendent.

The forum will begin at 7 at Central Junior High School and will cap the team's two-day visit to interview district students, staff and patrons.

"The board very much wants this to be an open search process so various members of the community can express their desires about what they'd like to see in our next superintendent," said school board president Dr. Ferrell Ervin.

School board members contracted with the state team to begin the search process for a superintendent in June after Superintendent Dr. Dan Tallent said he would not consider a new contract.

Ervin said the team met with each board member and with groups of staff members Monday. Meetings were scheduled today with business, education, religious and civic representatives.

Criteria collected during the forum and interviews will be used to search for potential applicants. On Sept. 21, the team will present the ;school board with its findings and set a timeline for the search.

Ervin said the board is confident it will have a successor on board before Tallent's contract expires June 30, and it is hoped the new superintendent will be named in time to help plan for next school year.

"We would like to have an opportunity for the new superintendent to at least be in place as we're planning on some things for the next academic year so that she or he can have input as to what we are going to be doing," said Ervin.

Tallent was hired in January 1996 after the board bought out the contract of then-superintendent Neyland Clark. Board members said Tallent had indicated when he was hired he was interested in being superintendent for three to five years.

He began his career in education in 1974 at Central High School where he taught math and coached wrestling and cross country. He returned to the school district in 1994 when he was hired as high-school principal, a job he held for two years before being named superintendent.

He has also worked as superintendent at Meadow Heights, athletic director and assistant high school principal of Perry County School District 32, high school principal at Delta and as a state supervisor of instruction in the Southeast region for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Tallent was a driving force in getting a $14 million bond issue approved by voters in April 1997. The bond issue, which included a 69-cent tax increase, will help finance building two new schools and renovating other school facilities.

He said has no other job prospects at the moment but is considering options that include early retirement and jobs in education or the private sector.