BOARD EXTENDS CLARK'S CONTRACT

The Cape Girardeau School Board has extended Superintendent Neyland Clark's contract by one year. The extension means Clark now has a three-year contract with the district.

Four school board members voted Friday night to extend Clark's contract for the additional year after evaluating his last year as superintendent. Two board members, Bob Fox and Steve Wright, voted against the extension. Another board member, John Campbell, wasn't present for the vote.

A written statement about the evaluation and the contract extension was expected from board president Ed Thompson this morning. Thompson said after Friday's board meeting that no information would be made public until the written statement was released.

But Fox said Sunday afternoon he wanted voters to know what the board had done before Tuesday's school board election. He also said that the candidates for school board should have time to respond to the contract extension before voters go to the polls.

Thompson's reason for handling the announcement about the meeting in a written statement was to prevent misquotes or erroneous information from surfacing in the media.

According to Fox, Friday's board meeting lasted over two hours, during which Clark's annual evaluation was discussed. The board voted 4-2 for the contract extension. He said board members Lyle Davis, Pat Ruoppe, Kathy Swan and Thompson voted in favor of the extension.

"We're trying to establish credibility for the board," Fox said, "and I didn't think this was the way to do it."

He said the last time the board voted for an extension of Clark's contract, they did it in an open meeting after a closed-session discussion.

"We could've done that this time," he said. "There's still one more meeting before the new board comes on."

Fox said he didn't anticipate the vote Friday night, but the motion was made by Davis and seconded by Swan.

"Dr. Clark didn't push this," he said. "He left the room while we had the discussion and took the vote. I don't think he expected it either, but I'm sure he'll gladly take it."

Fox said Clark has had some great accomplishments while with the Cape Girardeau public schools. But he said the community doesn't seem to want Clark in the leadership role any longer.

"For that reason, I was disappointed with the vote," he said.

Wright, the other board member who voted against the contract extension, agreed: "I think they did what was best for Dr. Clark and not what was best for the public schools. There was too much negativism here to warrant an extension of his contract."

Wright said Sunday he was speaking up about Friday night's vote because he saw no reason to wait until Monday morning for a release.

"There could've been a written statement to the media before Monday morning," he said.

Fox said he would let Thompson comment about the specifics of Clark's evaluation. "There were some positive points and negative points. That's all I'll say."

Clark earlier had indicated that he might not be interested in a contract extension and might want to leave the district before his contract expired.

"That's now totally up to him," Fox said. "He has the option of staying for a year."

Campbell, the board member not present for the vote, left Friday's meeting about 30 minutes before the vote was taken.

Campbell said Sunday that he didn't know the vote was going to be taken when he left the meeting.

Other board members contacted Sunday declined to comment or didn't return telephone calls.

Attempts to reach Clark were unsuccessful.

Clark became superintendent in July 1991. In the past year there has been considerable controversy about a decision last May by the superintendent to allow seniors who hadn't completed graduation requirements to participate in commencement exercises. More recently, Clark and some board members came under fire as a result of the use of the district's American Express account and slopping recordkeeping regarding travel expenses. The credit card account has since been closed.