Cape Girardeau's Board of Education will retreat Saturday to the Holiday Inn in Cape Girardeau for a day of training and planning.

The annual board retreat begins at 8 a.m. It is open to the public.

In the past, the retreat typically was held at out of town. Last summer it was in St. Louis. The year before, it was in Jefferson City.

The reason, board members said, was to avoid distractions and pressures that made it difficult to focus on school district business when the retreat was held in Cape Girardeau.

But new board president Bob Fox said he doesn't see any reason to hold the meeting out of town.

"It was too much of an inconvenience for people who wanted to attend," Fox said. "It is an open meeting."

Besides, he said, when the meeting was held out of town, people sometimes thought the board was trying to insulate itself, and its decisions, from constituents.

The agenda for Saturday's retreat includes two parts: discussion of an upcoming strategic planning process and a presentation by the Missouri School Boards Association.

Board member Harry Rediger and Superintendent Neyland Clark have devised a strategic planning process for the school system.

"We are going to talk about how this is being put together," Fox said.

Fox is anxious for the planning process to start.

The process is an attempt to build confidence within the community following a year of turmoil, including the resignation of three board members.

Fox and Rediger have said they hope to get many people involved in setting the course for the school district.

At Saturday's meeting, the MSBA will conduct an orientation program. Because of the resignations, and the annual school election, the board has many new members.

Fox is serving the second year of his three-year term, but this is his first year as president of the board.

One of the goals Fox has set for the board this year is a self-examination.

"I want to establish a process by which the board could review and evaluate itself," he said. "It's been a long time since this board has done that. I think we can learn a lot."

The MSBA has an evaluation process that many Missouri school boards use. Fox said the evaluation likely will be done in early winter or spring.

"I know, being an inexperienced board, some things we could do better," he said. "I know things as president that I could have handled differently. We need to learn from those mistakes."

Fox added that lots of positive things happen during a year, and those should be reviewed also.