BOARD WILL REVIEW BAND DIRECTOR ISSUE

The Cape Girardeau Board of Education sent one part of the budget cuts announced last month elimination of one band director back to committee for review.

At its Monday meeting, the board also approved the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Alliance preferred provider option for medical insurance for one year.

The board hired Harold Tilley as the new director of the Cape Girardeau Area Vocational School and, in closed session, selected board member Ed Thompson as president and member John Campbell as vice president of the school board for the coming year.

More than 100 people attended the meeting, which was moved to the Central High School auditorium to accommodate the crowd. Most of those attending supported reinstatement of band director Mark McHale. McHale is one of three teachers slated for dismissal as a result of $1.2 million in budget cuts last month. He is also one of three band directors working in the district.

Mike Shivelbine, vice president of the band parents organization, presented the board with petitions signed by parents supporting retention of three directors in the band program.

"By your figures, we are talking about a $12,500 cost to the district," Shivelbine said.

Shivelbine said the program's quality has improved greatly over the past decade, in part due to a team-teaching approach by the three directors.

Shivelbine claims that the expenditure for students to participate in band is $95 per student, compared to $610 per football player.

"Band lasts the entire school year. Both boys and girls participate. And everybody plays all the time," he said.

Shivelbine added that music scholarships for Central students outpaced athletic scholarships last year.

"We do not intend to suggest that athletics should be cut instead of the band program," he said. "But through this budget cut, the quality of the band will be hurt significantly."

Shivelbine said Jackson and Poplar Bluff school districts, through their budget-cutting processes, have each retained three band directors.

Bill Thorpe also addressed the board. "Band is not an extra curricular activity. It's a curricular activity. It is graded just like chemistry and physics."

He said while most student musicians will not become professional musicians, "they do it because they like it and because they perceive that the teachers care about them.

"By cutting one teacher, you are cutting a third of the teaching staff."

Parents of band students met with Superintendent Neyland Clark Monday morning and presented a suggestion to shuffle music staff members throughout the district in an effort to keep McHale employed. Details of these ideas were not discussed.

Board President Pat Ruopp recommended that the issue be referred to the New Funds Committee, the group that made the final budget cut proposals.

Board members said they would like to have a special meeting on this issue before the end of April.

Members also restated a commitment to hire an elementary principal before any other cuts are restored. One of the cuts was an elementary principal. At a special meeting last week, the board reassigned Richard Bollwerk, director of elementary education, to also serve as principal at Washington School.

Clark said, "We do not think we have reinstated the elementary principal."

Although the board approved the Alliance insurance plan, Board members Ruopp and Gwen Bennett expressed concern with a preferred provider option, PPO.

The decision to go with the PPO was approved by the Cape Girardeau Community Teachers Association, through a committee charged with investigating insurance, prior to being presented to the board.

Clark said, "This represents a tremendous savings to the district as a whole and some savings to teachers individually."

Business Manager Larry Dew said the district would realize a savings of about $40,000 and participants in the program could collectively save $15,000 to $20,000.

"I hope that teachers understand the full ramification of a PPO," said Ruopp, a dentist. "It's always nice to talk about saving money. But we need to also look at how this affects the whole community. Many people are employed by the hospitals and in medical offices.

"The problem in Cape Girardeau is that our hospitals are not PPO providers."

Insurance will pay the standard 80-20 on claims from Cape Girardeau hospitals, but under the PPO arrangement, the insurance company will pay 90-10 at program providers in St. Louis.

Bennett said, "I want to support this because I want to support the teachers. But I do not believe this is in the teachers' best interest in the long run."

The recommendation is for a one-year trial period, Clark said.

The superintendent said he has talked with hospital administrators and members of the medical community about concerns regarding PPO programs.

"They have indicated a willingness to work with us next year," he said. Self-insurance is a possibility.

At the vocational school, Tilley replaces Gary Gilbert as director. Gilbert announced his retirement from the post earlier this school year.