BOARD OKs CONTRACT FOR CLARK; KITCHEN HIRED AS DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS

The Cape Girardeau Board of Education Tuesday night formally approved a contract hiring Neyland Clark as superintendent of schools.

The board also approved the hiring of Terry Kitchen as the district's athletic director and discussed the issue of yearbook photography.

Clark, who officially took over reins of the district July 1, has a three-year contract with the district. He will be paid $72,000 per year and will receive a $250-a-month mileage allowance. He will drive his personal car. He also has a benefits package similar to other administrators in the district.

Kitchen is Central High School's baseball coach.

James Englehart, director of secondary education, said Kitchen was the top choice of a committee that screened applicants and interviewed four candidates. Englehart was a member of the committee.

Kitchen was hired for 12 months. He will be paid $43,000 and will have two weeks vacation. Kitchen will not teach or coach. Athletic director is a full-time administrative job.

A proposed change of the job description for athletic director was approved.

Board members approved Clark's recommendation to make the athletic director responsible to the junior-high and senior-high principals instead of directly responsible to the superintendent.

Board member Lyle Davis said the job description, as presented to the board Tuesday, was changed from the recommended job description written by a task force that studied the district's athletic program.

"The job description has been re-written," Davis said. "I'm not necessarily opposed to (the athletic director) reporting to building principals. I am somewhat concerned about rewriting the job description."

Davis said a lot of time was spent by task force members wording the job description. "Now, it's written a little differently."

Clark said he would review the job description submitted by the task force and compare it to the job description given to the board.

Concerning yearbook photographs for Central High School, Clark explained that a committee will be formed to discuss the process of selecting an official photographer for the Girardot, the Central High School yearbook.

But he said the present procedure would continue for the coming school year. The board has awarded a contract to Cheekwood Studios to provide those photography services.

At the June board meeting, Steve Robertson, owner of Robertson's Creative Photography, challenged the policy of requiring all senior portraits published in the yearbook to be taken by the contract photographer.

Clark said, "We are referring this back to committee to see if there are ways to improve a practice which is longstanding."

He said the practice of awarding a contract for photography services is 12 to 15 years old.

But, Clark said, the board has already awarded a contract for the services for the coming school year.

"We want to be known as an organization that honors our commitments," Clark said. "We will honor the contract and at the same time go back and look at our policy and procedure. If future action is needed, we will address it at that time."

The board met for 35 minutes in open session before meeting in closed session at the request of Davis to discuss "personnel matters."