Cape Girardeau school board announces next superintendent

Cape Girardeau Public Schools Board of Education members agreed to offer the district’s superintendent position to a then-unnamed candidate Tuesday evening, March 7, after an hourslong closed session.

The group did not vote in open session on the offer, though state freedom of information law requires votes taken in private to be announced in public.

Kristin Tallent, communications director, said Tuesday evening it might be several days before the candidate accepted the position.

The Cape Girardeau Public Schools central administrative offices as seen on Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2021. Sarah Yenesel ~ sarahy@semissourian.com

The Cape Girardeau Public Schools central administrative offices as seen on Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2021. Sarah Yenesel ~ sarahy@semissourian.com

Wednesday afternoon, March 8, the district announced the one internal candidate had accepted the job.

“We are very excited to share that our next superintendent will be Dr. Howard Benyon, our current deputy superintendent of Elementary Education,” a release states. “Dr. Benyon has also served as the Deputy Superintendent of Secondary Education at CGPS and was the Missouri Association of School Administrators New Superintendent of the Year when he was the head superintendent at Scott County Central.”

The release says Benyon has more than two decades of experience in education, with 18 years as an administrator.

Two candidates applied for the position, which will become open at the end of this school year as superintendent Neil Glass announced his retirement at the board’s January meeting.

Until Wednesday, district officials had not identified either candidate, and the identity of the second candidate had not been revealed as of Wednesday afternoon.

Disputed

The board made their vote in closed session and when asked whether the vote was unanimous, board president Matt Welker paused, then chuckled, before he said, “The record will show.” Then he said, “It was.”

He later equivocated.

“The vote might say differently in some aspects that we voted on, but it gets complicated as far as everyone collectively on the board has the same path in mind,” Welker said. “We are all on the same page as far as the direction we see the district going.”

Board member Veronica Langston wrote in a letter to the editor of the Southeast Missourian, submitted Wednesday afternoon, that she did not vote to make the offer — not because she opposed the candidate but because she thought the board’s search process had been flawed. She described Tuesday’s meeting as “contentious”.

“The discussion was robust and, at times, quite contentious. I felt pressure to change my vote. However, when I ran for my position on the board, I promised that I would do what I felt best to stand up for the students and staff, and our community that supports Cape Girardeau Public Schools. I will continue to honor that commitment, even when it is hard,” she wrote.

According to state law, public bodies cannot take votes in closed session without divulging those votes in open session.

The state attorney general’s website says on the matter: “The following are examples of types of information that cannot be closed under the Sunshine Law: ‘... The votes of each member of a board or council during closed session, even if the information considered during the closed meeting may be closed.’”

On Tuesday night, Welker said board members had not spoken to the candidate about the offer. They conducted interviews for the position one week ago. Welker said the board will communicate with the candidate to set up a meeting to negotiate the contract as early as Wednesday morning.

“We’ll have to see if someone accepts the offer, and then negotiate that contract with them and then go from there,” Welker said. “Tomorrow, we’ll reach out to the candidate to set up that meeting to start the negotiations to see if it is accepted by them. ... It’s exciting. I felt like tonight was very constructive, and we’re heading in the right way.”

District officials had previously indicated their intent to hire a superintendent to replace retiring superintendent Glass at Tuesday’s meeting. Glass announced his retirement at the end of this school year at the board’s January meeting.

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In open session, board members voted to authorize Glass to negotiate a contract with Spectrum Communications for a fiber WAN (wide-area network) connection between the district Technology Office and the new Central Academy building.