Cape school board gets new member

With four of six votes Monday night, Skip Smallwood became a temporary member of the Cape Girardeau School Board.

Smallwood will take the place of Robert Brown, who resigned from the board in August to move to St. Louis, for the next six months. In April, a special election will be held to fill Brown's remaining year on the board.

Last week, the board interviewed five candidates for the position: former board member Dr. Martha Zlokovich, Creighton Gould, Dale Beaird, Carroll Williams and Smallwood. They voted on a replacement in open session at Monday's meeting.

Smallwood, who is a business development executive for Ameren Services, received votes from board members Tim Arbeiter, Charles Haubold, Laura Sparkman and the Rev. William Bird. Board members Dr. Steve Trautwein and Sharon Mueller voted for Zlokovich.

Also at Monday's meeting, the board approved the district's annual audit for 2003-2004 from auditors Beussink, Hey, Roe, Seabaugh & Stroder, LLC.

"We spent two weeks looking at everything we could get our hands on," said Jeff Stroder, a representative from the auditing firm. "It looks similar to last year's. We noted no instances of noncompliance."

The audit included statements of assets, liabilities and fund balances as well as some data required by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, such as attendance figures.

The district's total expenditures for 2003-2004 were $34,877,571, while revenue was $35,257,487. On June 30, the end of the fiscal year, the district had $6.17 million in reserve balances.

Stroder said there were some minor issues that did not require reporting in the actual audit, such as recommendations for teachers to fill out certain paperwork and categorizing some items in different funds.

"They were minor suggestions that required no written finding and some are already being implemented," Stroder said.

cclark@semissourian.com

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