OAK RIDGE GETS NEW SUPERINTENDENT

PATTON -- Wanted: superintendent to lead school district in Southeast Missouri.

It could be an advertisement for a number of school districts from Scott City to Perryville, but the latest is for Meadow Heights, which joins the list of area school districts looking for a new leader.

Superintendent Cheri Fuemmeler will leave her job at Meadow Heights to lead the Oak Ridge School District. She begins July 1.

Oak Ridge Superintendent Roger Tatum resigned in March to take a job as superintendent in Scott City, where Doug Berry is retiring.

The Meadow Heights Board of Education accepted Fuemmeler's resignation April 24, but didn't announce it until Wednesday. Applications will be accepted by the board until May 15.

Fuemmeler was hired at Meadow Heights in August after serving six weeks as interim superintendent. She accepted a one-year contract that expires June 30.

"It's certainly been a learning experience," Fuemmeler said of her first year as superintendent.

She spent four years as elementary principal at Meadow Heights.

"It's a good community, and the staff have been good to work with," she said.

Fuemeller said turmoil in the district during her tenure is a shame.

For years the Meadow Heights district has been plagued with problems. Tom Waller resigned as superintendent last July amid a controversy of exaggerated attendance records at the school.

The district must repay about $30,000 to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for payments it received based on the inflated records. Attendance records are used to determine state funding.

Aside from the problems, the Oak Ridge and Meadow Heights districts are roughly the same. Both are situated in rural communities and cover about the same span of territory with similar enrollments.

"It's a solid community that gives 100 percent to the school," Fuemmeler said of Oak Ridge.

Fuemmeler will take office at the same time a $750,000 building is completed. The project includes adding a wing for high school science and math classrooms and laboratories.

Fuemmeler's husband, David, is superintendent at Nell Holcomb School. The couple have one daughter, Stephanie.