Eight candidates outline their priorities for district

The eight applicants for the vacant position on the Cape Girardeau school board include parents of students in the school system, as well as a woman who is raising her grandchildren, a real estate agent whose family graduated from Central High School, and a single woman who describes herself as a "product of the Cape Girardeau public school system."

All of them have one thing in common: their desire for students to get a good education in the public school system.

The eight applicants are Van Ayers, Mary Jackson, David Hess, Carrie Bell Smith, Brenda Newbern, Dr. Twila Brown, Brynda Dickson and Martha Hamilton.

The school board is expected to narrow the list of applicants to five finalists at a meeting Monday. The board then will interview the finalists at a public meeting June 18. A final decision is expected by mid-July at the latest, school officials said.

The person chosen will fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Sharon Mueller until the April election.

Ayers, 51, is an agriculture and rural development specialist with the University of Missouri Extension in Bloomfield, Mo.

He and his wife, Nancy, have a son who will be entering third grade and daughter who will be a junior in high school. "I think Cape has an excellent school system," Ayers said.

He said he would like to see the district pursue more grant funding. Ayers said he also would like to see the school foundation grow.

Jackson, 31, led an unsuccessful effort by parents and students this spring to get the school board to retain middle school principal Frank Ellis and assistant principal Debbie Followell. Jackson, who works as a loan officer with Missouri Title Loan Co., still believes the board's decision was wrong.

Jackson and her husband, Willie, have a daughter in elementary school, a son in the middle school and two daughters at the junior high school.

Hess, 42, likes the school system. "This area is blessed with excellent schools," said Hess, a funeral director and embalmer at Ford and Sons Funeral Home.

He and his family moved to Cape Girardeau from Cairo, Ill., five years ago. Hess and his wife, Cindy, have a son who will be a senior in high school and a daughter who will be entering fifth grade.

Smith, who is single, graduated from Central High School in 1995. She is a clinical pharmacist at Saint Francis Medical Center.

"I am a product of the Cape Girardeau public school system. My degree in chemistry was inspired by some of the wonderful teachers at the high school level who have challenged me to achieve and succeed," Smith wrote in applying for the school board position in a letter to school superintendent Dr. David Scala.

Smith, 30, said Tuesday that she wants to make sure students today receive the same educational benefits that she did in the school system.

Newbern, 54, and her husband, Roscoe, are raising their two grandchildren, one a senior in high school and the other a student at Central Middle School. She said she wants to help all students develop to their full potential. "The school has always been the place where a difference can be made in a child's life," she wrote in her application letter.

Newbern is a sales manager for MidAmerica Hotels Corp. She also is a real estate agent.

Brown, 48, an assistant professor of nursing at Southeast Missouri State University, favors strong bonds of communication among students, teachers, parents and administrators. "I am pro teacher," she said. "Parents and administrators need to listen to what teachers have to say."

She and her husband, cardiovascular surgeon Randy Brown, have three daughters -- one in middle school, one in junior high school and one in high school.

Dickson, 36, and her husband, Kevin, have four children. They have a daughter and two sons who attend Cape Girardeau schools, and a 15-month-old daughter.

Dickson said she would like to see the district establish a preschool program. "This gives children, who would not otherwise have the opportunity, the opportunity to attend pre-K and therefore be more prepared to start school," she wrote in her application letter.

Hamilton, a real estate agent, couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday. But in her application letter, Hamilton described herself as an "ardent supporter" of the school district, adding that the school district is the best in Southeast Missouri and one of the top districts in the state.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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