CANDIDATES TALK SCHOOL PLANNING

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Candidates for the Cape Girardeau Board of Education say they seek a role in directing the school district's future by implementing a long-range plan.

All three candidates running for three-year terms on the board said the school district is in dire need of such a plan.

Voters Tuesday will select two persons to serve three-year terms. Running for the posts are Gwen Bennett, Daniel Dunavan, and incumbent Patrick Ruopp.

Cape Girardeau dentist Patrick Ruopp, 1640 Oxford, is the only incumbent running. He is seeking a fourth term on the board.

"In the nine years I've been on the board," Ruopp said, "we have the greatest potential for development now that we have ever had. It's extremely exciting for Cape Girardeau."

Ruopp said the new superintendent, Dr. Neyland Clark, will begin his duties soon, and Ruopp would like an opportunity to work with him.

"My highest priority is working with the superintendent to develop this district into a model for the rest of the state."

Ruopp said for the district to become this model, a long-range plan is needed.

"The long-range plan is the most important part," he said. Many other issues facing the district will be addressed by such a plan, he maintained.

For example, the plan would address the district's building needs.

"There is no question that in the next five to 10 years, hopefully even sooner, we have to be involved in the building of new schools.

"We have some old buildings," Ruopp said. "There is just not enough space, and some are 75 years old. They were not designed at all for modern ideas in education."

Ruopp said a middle school for the district should be included in the plan.

"I think a middle school seems like a really good possibility for Cape schools," Ruopp said. "The sixth, seventh and eighth grade seems like it might be the best combination right now.

"But we have to do some evaluation to determine what all our needs are in the district."

Ruopp said the role of athletics in the school district will be affected by the new superintendent.

"I think a lot will depend on the new superintendent and his attitude toward athletics and the importance he places on athletics," Ruopp said. "He can look at the philosophy we developed in the athletic task force and will come up with ideas on how to operate the program more efficiently.

"That's one of the big reasons I want to be on the board again. I want to work with the new superintendent," Ruopp explained. "I know where the school district's been, and I would like to see where it's going to go in the future."

Gwen Bennett, 2407 Brookwood, the mother of four school-age children and part-time business manager for her husband, Dr. Michael Bennett, also called for a long-range plan for the district.

"I think it's vital that the school district and the community do some long-range planning," Bennett said. "Until we decide where we want to go, it's difficult to specify the steps it will take to get us there.

"I think it's time to look down the road and see where we want to be 20 years from now and then decide how to get there. We need to gather as a community and make some decisions."

Bennett said the plan should include everything from the English department and school counselors to new buildings.

Bennett said study of a building program, including a possible middle school, should be included in the long-range plan.

She believes the district does not have a choice about beginning a building program.

"I believe the average life span of a building, considering safety and educational value. is about 50 years," Bennett said. "If that is in fact true, we have at least three buildings that should have already been planned to be replaced.

"If in fact a middle school concept fits in to where we want to be with our educational program and where we want to be with replacement of buildings, I would be in favor of it," Bennett said.

"To say at this point that that is the solution is a mistake. That is one option that we need to consider.

"In my heart I want to leave the sixth graders in the grade school environment," Bennett said. "However, if after studying our educational programs and our building replacement schedule, I see that it would be in the best interests of the students and the district to make a change, I will support it."

Bennett said the district needs both a long-term and a short-term solution to overcrowding in some elementary buildings.

"For too long we have only been able to look at short-term solutions," she said.

"I feel certain with direction from the director of elementary education and building principals we can find solutions we can live with."

Bennett, who was a member of a task force that studied the district's athletic program, said: "Make no mistake, I'm an advocate of the value of athletic programs. I do not believe that academics and athletics have to be in conflict with one another.

"Rather I believe that they can not only peacefully coexist but that they can even enhance each other. The key in all this is keeping the programs in the proper perspective.

"But also make no mistake, I'm an educator first and our primary role is to teach children academically.

"My experience really is elementary education," Bennett said. "When I look at what I might offer my community, this is the only area of experience and expertise I have."

Daniel Dunavan, 1479 Rose, associate professor of music at Southeast Missouri State University, called for planning also, especially for the district's financial needs.

"Finances are, whether we like it or not, the thing that gives us opportunities to be innovative and to educate children. A lack of finances also stifles that creativity and programming," Dunavan said.

"I think the school district must be as responsible as possible with funding and must do long-range planning for the future so we can be as fiscally responsible as possible."

Dunavan said the planning should be done by teachers, parents, administrators and the school board.

Planning is critical to other issues facing the district also, especially school buildings, Dunavan said.

"We are faced with several schools that are beyond what their life had been intended," Dunavan said. "And buildings are tied in with the middle school idea.

Dunavan said he is "not particularly committed at this point to a middle school.

"We have a very unique situation with a seventh-grade attendance center. Very few schools have that."

Dunavan said: "More study has to be done about how a middle school would operate. We need to figure out how we will supply facilities to all the different age children."

He said athletics also fits into the school system.

"It seems to me we already have pretty much of a perspective of where athletics belongs in the school system," Dunavan said.

"We need to continue that philosophy and continue watching it and making sure that financially it doesn't get out of hand."

Dunavan is also concerned about curriculum development.

"I want to make sure teachers have encouragement to help us enjoy the new technology and new ideas that they bring us from workshops and different summer programs."