LARRY TRICKEY FILES FOR CAPE SCHOOL BOARD

Notre Dame girls basketball coach Larry Trickey filed Wednesday for one of two open seats on the Cape Girardeau Board of Education.

Trickey, 54, has two grown daughters, two stepdaughters and a stepson. The younger children all attend private, Catholic schools, but Trickey said that will help him maintain objectivity as a member of the public school board.

He worked for two school years in Cape Girardeau's vocational assessment office and said he saw things about the district that needed to be changed.

"I would like to add some common sense to the board," Trickey said. "I feel they are not addressing the rapidly growing drop-out rate. One of my priorities would be establishing an alternative school in Cape to deal with that."

He also wants to see class sizes reduced to no more than 25 students per teacher. It could be done with more efficient use of taxpayer dollars, Trickey said.

Currently a social studies teacher and girls basketball coach in Notre Dame schools, the candidate also has worked as a juvenile officer and an administrator at a school for delinquent girls. He said he believes in being a strong but fair disciplinarian.

"You can't expect a teacher to manage a classroom with 35 kids in it," Trickey said. "It is easy to suspend kids, but that's not solving the basic problem."

Incumbents on the school board are Ed Thompson and Lyle Davis. Thompson filed for re-election Tuesday and Davis has yet to announce his intentions.