ELLIS NAMED PRINCIPAL AT NEW CENTER

Frank Ellis has been named principal of the Cape Girardeau School District fifth-and-sixth-grade center scheduled to open in fall 2002.

Ellis, who has been principal of Alma Schrader Elementary School since 1997, is the district's first black principal since segregation. He formerly worked as assistant principal at Alma Schrader Elementary, and also was an remedial math teacher at Jefferson Elementary and classroom teacher at May Greene Elementary School.

Schools Superintendent Dr. Dan Steska said Ellis will join administrators in planning for the opening of the center, which will coincide with the opening of the district's new, four-year high school currently in the works. Grade levels will be reconfigured throughout the district at that time.

The five elementary buildings would have kindergarten through fourth-grades. Fifth and sixth grades would be at the existing junior high school, seventh and eighth grades at the current high school, and ninth through 12th grades at the new high school campus.

Steska said Ellis' administrative experience will be a plus for the new center, which will enable the district to "get a consistent set of behavior and academic expectations at an earlier age."

Steska said the district will not hire a replacement for Ellis at Alma Schrader until next year because the need will not require as much planning.

"It's very important that we bring kids together at the fifth grade level versus the current seventh grade level so they get to know each other earlier, before the adolescent stage," Steska said. "We feel that will make a better transition."

He and his wife, Sylvia, have two children.