DOCTOR, CEO SIBLINGS THANK PARENTS FOR SUCCESS

An annual $100,000 award for teaching excellence in Cape Girardeau public schools was created with no strings attached and no expiration date in mind.

Dr. Jerry Kinder of Cape Girardeau and his brother, Richard Kinder of Houston, Texas, created the Edna C. Kinder Excellence in Teaching Award in memory of their mother, a longtime special-education teacher at May Greene Elementary School.

The annual award will be given to teachers within the district beginning this year. Each recipient -- 10 annually -- receives a $10,000 check to be spent as they choose.

Jerry Kinder, a retired general surgeon, said the award will be paid out of the Kinder Family Trust, a multimillion-dollar charitable foundation the siblings established about three years ago.

Richard Kinder, a former area attorney, is the chief executive officer of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners and Kinder Morgan Inc. The companies form one of the country's largest gas pipeline interests, worth approximately $10 billion.

"There's a large amount of money in the foundation, and it's to be used for a multiplicity of things," Jerry Kinder said Wednesday. "We felt fortunate, because of our parents, to have done as well as we did, and we wanted to share that."

The first round of awards will be given this spring. All teachers may nominate one colleague, and each principal may nominate one or more teachers for the award before March 15. A committee of building principals, schools Superintendent Dr. Dan Steska and Jerry Kinder will review the pool of nominees.

The selection will be completed by April 15 annually. The Kinder brothers announced the award at a press conference Tuesday, and school administrators were quick to spread the news.

"I just told them up front this was for real," said Jefferson Elementary School Principal Mark Cook of his announcement of the award during a staff meeting. "They were taken aback because it is such a big award."

School administrators are not eligible to receive the award, and teachers may not receive the award more often than once every five years.

There is no specific selection of teachers by building, division or number of years of service in teaching or in the district. The sole criteria for the award are outstanding teaching success and positive impact on children..