JACKSON SCHOOL BOARD RACE FIELDS 3 FOR 2 SPOTS

JACKSON -- On Tuesday, Jackson voters will go to the polls and pick two school board candidates from a field of three: Marvin Adams, Jeanette Bollinger and Jewell Beauchamp.

Bollinger has served on the board for four years, Adams for three and Beauchamp is a retired teacher ready to serve children in a different capacity.

Bollinger, 59, and her husband, Larry, have two grandchildren at North Elementary School. She retired in 1984 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture office in Jackson and later worked for Tullis Insurance in Cape Girardeau before her retirement in 1990.

Now Bollinger, certified by the Missouri School Boards Association, is active in the First Baptist Church in Jackson and the Tribal Council Booster Club.

She said she isn't concerned about making sweeping changes in Jackson Public Schools -- things are going well. But Bollinger wants to see better planning.

"The district needs a five- or ten-year plan," she said. "We started on it, but we're nowhere near finished. The plan would include the buildings and curriculum."

She added that she felt her job as a school board member was to help provide the best equipment, administrators and teachers so that students can have the best education.

Bollinger was asked at a recent candidate forum how she felt about the controversial outcomes-based education. Although she declined to say much about it at the forum, Bollinger is waiting on a report from school staff to weigh the pros and cons.

"There are so many different ideas as to what it is," she said. "I don't see any problems with anything we have in Jackson now. We have excellent teachers who try new ways of teaching."

Fellow board member Adams said he didn't want to take sides on the OBE issue but agreed with Bollinger that nothing would be done with it immediately. He said he appreciated the flexibility of OBE and the fact school districts could choose what they wanted for themselves.

Adams, 54, and his wife, Sally, have two grown children. He is a State Farm Insurance agent in Jackson.

Adams said he initially decided to run to give something back to a community that has been good to him in business. Now he wants to continue the progress the school board made during his first term.

"We are in a growing mode, and I think continuity is going to be very important to our board," Adams said.

He said one of the big issues facing the board is accommodating Jackson schools' incredible growth. Although the board initially believed the new middle school, to be completed in a few weeks, would help them catch up, it hasn't completely done so.

Adams called keeping up with growth a "continuing battle."

Beauchamp, 74, comes from a different background than the incumbents, having taught in Cape Girardeau Public Schools for 21 years. His six children attended Jackson schools and he has grandchildren in the district now.

Giving schools back to the people is Beauchamp's platform. He wants to abolish Senate Bill 380, which many say takes too much power away from local districts and gives it to the state.

"Our taxes are going to have to go up because of the enormous bureaucracy," Beauchamp said. "We need to cancel this bill out and let people in the school district take care of the operation of the school."

He promised, if elected, he would serve only one term, saying that serving several terms leads people into "dictatorial-type thinking" and into making decisions to serve their friends' interests.

Cape County Clerk Rodney Miller said he wasn't expecting a large turnout for Tuesday's election, but he hoped people decided to get out and vote.

He said the controversial Cape Girardeau School Board election was most likely to interest the largest number of voters.