GROUP QUESTIONS SCHOOL BOARD

Representatives of a citizens group that called for the resignation of Cape Girardeau Superintendent Neyland Clark said they question the Board of Education's pledge to improve communication.

The reason: a curt response penned by the board's public relations committee addressing the group's list of concerns.

Group members see the response as an example of the school board's lack of respect for community input and opinions.

Board member Pat Ruopp, chairman of the board's public relations committee, said members of the group misread the message.

The group, Concerned Citizens for Education, collected more than 1,000 signatures calling for Clark's resignation. At the board's Aug. 10 meeting, Clark's contract was extended by one year. He also got a pay raise.

Prior to the board's evaluation of Clark, board member Bob Fox asked group spokesman Amy Randol to have the group outline specific concerns with Clark's performance. Group members generated a seven-page document of 14 areas they saw as deficiencies in the superintendent's job performance. Concerns ranged from the number of school board meetings Clark has missed to low morale among staff.

At the school board's retreat Aug. 6, Fox produced the letter and discovered that he had the only copy. Copies were made and distributed to other board members.

Ruopp said, "It was decided by the board that these complaints were significant and needed to be addressed, and were referred to the public relations committee."

The eight-page response of Aug. 10 was signed by Ruopp and Kathy Swan, board vice president.

Randol and group members Helen Miner and Ferrell Ervin were insulted by the written response. Randol said she appreciated a response, but not the language contained in the letter.

In the response, the group's concerns are referred to as complaints and allegations.

Miner said, "This basically says, `Thanks, but no thanks. Butt out.'

"We really expected a professional, respectful response," Miner said. "This is not that. It's demeaning and insulting. I expected better."

Ervin said the response quibbles over insignificant facts. For example, the group's letter said Clark missed five of the past 15 board meetings. The response states that Clark missed four. Ervin said either count equals high absenteeism and he wants to know why.

Ruopp said the response was a sincere attempt to answer the group's questions. "It was not meant in any way to be smart or demeaning," he said. "We were trying to be very courteous."

He said Randol and others have misinterpreted the letter and they apparently don't have a good idea of how public education operates.

"If we don't know what's going on, whose fault is that?" Ervin asked.

Miner attended her first school board meeting Aug. 10, and said she was appalled at what she observed: People being hired without discussion, the name of a new school principal not being announced during the meeting, the financial report generating no discussion.

"It seems like stuff comes out of the blue, like there is no thought because of the lack of discussion," Miner said.

Randol has been reviewing copies of board minutes and Miner has been going over financial reports. Both are asking questions.

"This isn't over," Ervin said. "We owe it to the thousand or so people who signed petitions that had questions to at least try to answer their questions."

Fox suggested Wednesday that members of the citizens group sit down with Ruopp and Swan to discuss the two letters and their differences.

"We've got to work through this," Fox said. "We've got to make something positive come out of this."