Cape School Board appoints Fanger as interim superintendent

She's been down this road before, but this trip is expected to be Pat Fanger's last walk with the Cape Girardeau School District.

Last week, the Cape Girardeau School Board appointed the assistant superintendent to the superintendent post for July. The action made formal what had long been anticipated.

Fanger will effectively fill in for superintendent Jim Welker, who in April asked the board to release him from the final year of his contract so that he could tap into a partial lump sum payment from his state pension. Welker has told the board he intends to return to the position, and will pursue a new three-year contract with the board in August.

Under pension law, he can have no contact with the district until Aug. 1. If the board offers Welker a new contract in August, he would notify the Public School and Education Employee Retirement Systems of Missouri that he is "coming out of retirement," and at that time his retirement benefits would stop. He will, however, be able to keep the partial lump sum payment.

Cape Girardeau School Board president Stacy Kinder said the board will take up the issue of Welker's contract next month, "in terms of crafting" a new agreement, reiterating that neither party can be in communication with the other. As far as the contract's length, Kinder said that's up for discussion. She said the district does not have to post the superintendent position, and the board is not planning to do so.

Fanger, who had planned on retiring at the end of the school year, agreed to stay on and serve as interim superintendent for July under her current salary schedule.

Earlier this year, the board extended her contract through August, in large part so that she could help in the transition of her successor, Sherry Copeland.

On the verge of her last month with the district, Fanger admits to some mixed emotions.

"I'm looking forward to my new life ahead of me, but the thought of not walking into this building and the school buildings is kind of sad," she said.

Fanger, who took the curriculum director position with the district eight years ago and moved into her administrative post a short time later, briefly served as interim superintendent before the board hired Welker three years ago.

"She's a veteran interim," Kinder said. "We're thrilled she's able to, of course, step in, and I'm sure she's going to do a great job, as she has been doing and as she's done before."

Fanger should be busy. July is a hectic month of preparation in public education. There's orientation for the district's new teachers, training for building principals and responding to the Missouri Assessment Program test results, expected to arrive next month.

mkittle@semissourian.com

388-3627

Pertinent address:

301 N. Clark Ave., Cape Girardeau, MO