PRINICPAL HOPEFULS INTERVIEW; CAPE SCHOOL BOARD TO VIEW CANDIDATES

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The Cape Girardeau School District Board of Education today will hold a special closed meeting to interview candidates for principal of Hawthorn Elementary School.

Charles Clippard, Hawthorn's principal for 35 years, announced in February that he would retire at the end of the school year.

The closed meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at the Board of Education Conference Room, 61 North Clark.

None of the candidates has been named, nor has the district announced how many will be interviewed.

The school board also will hold its regular monthly meeting at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Hawthorn School, 2860 Hopper Road.

At that meeting, the board will discuss fall semester enrollment estimates and their possible affect on school staffing needs. Several staffing recommendations are included on Tuesday's agenda.

Richard Bollwerk, director of elementary education for the Cape Girardeau Public Schools, said Sunday that the district annually assesses enrollment and staffing.

"It's an annual process we go through to look at enrollment and see if there's going to be any increases," he said. "We take the current enrollment in each grade and move it up a year.

"I've been out talking with the principals to see if they anticipate any large numbers of kids moving in or moving out. It's usually pretty close, monitoring it that way."

Some of the possible staff additions proposed for next year include:

An additional section in seventh grade for science, mathematics, social studies, language arts, reading, art and physical education due to an anticipated increase in enrollment.

An additional remedial reading teacher that would also instruct in the Reading Recovery program. The teacher's salary would be funded from the district's remedial reading allocation.

"Reading Recovery is a program we've been working on for two years," Bollwerk said.

He said that when the program is implemented next year, the district wants to lower the student-to-teacher ratio from 55 to 40, which would require an additional staff member.

The Parents as Teachers program might need an additional staff member to meet the growing number of parents wanting to participate.

"It's one of those things where we're serving more and more parents every year," Bollwerk said. "It's a voluntary program for parents for children from birth until they reach school age.

"Each year, more and more parents learn about it, and there's a waiting list now for parents who want services, so we're looking at adding a fourth teacher."

The district will be better able to gauge enrollments after it holds its annual "Spring Roundup" April 22-26, when parents enroll new kindergarten students.

The tentative schedule for the "Spring Roundup" is: April 22, Hawthorn and May Greene; April 23, Jefferson and Washington; April 25, Franklin; and April 26, Alma Schrader.

In other business Tuesday, the board will consider:

A report on the Breakfast Pilot Program recently implemented at May Greene School.

A report on an attempt to obtain funding for summer school at Cottonwood Treatment Center.

Amendments to the annual budget.

The district's financial projections.

Monthly reports of the Finance, Building and Grounds, Community Relations, and Legislative Committees.