NELL HOLCOMB TO HAVE PRINCIPAL-COUNSELOR

The Nell Holcomb School District will again have a principal and superintendent this school year. But for the first time they're separate people.

Starting Aug. 10, Jack Mann of Cape Girardeau will assume the duty of part-time principal as well as serving as the elementary district's counselor and special services coordinator.

District Superintendent David Fuemmeler said Monday that Mann was hired with a 10-month contract at the district's May Board of Education meeting. The district's new fiscal year begins Wednesday, with classes starting Aug. 26.

Said Fuemmeler: "There's never been a separate position or no one's carried on those duties in a separate capacity. With the (state's) school improvement review team all the areas that have to be addressed as far as curriculum, budget, transportation, and student issues we feel there's been a definite need for a part-time principal."

The district's superintendent has previously also served as the district's principal.

Mann, 40, lives in Cape Girardeau in Ashland Hills and fills a position left vacant by former district counselor and special services coordinator Susan Crites. Fuemmeler said Crites accepted a job with the Jackson School District.

"With Miss Crites leaving," he said, "it gave us the opportunity to hire an individual without creating a special position to serve those extra needs. We're just simply increasing the duties of the previous person."

The last three years Mann has served as counselor and worked in special services at Jefferson Elementary School in Cape Girardeau. Plus, Fuemmeler said, Mann has three years of experience with the Perryville school system in working with learning disabled and behavioral disorder students.

Because of the extra duties, he said, Mann will receive extra compensation. Part of his salary will be reimbursed through special education revenues from the state, Fuemmeler said. He said Mann's salary will be $32,000.

On Monday, Mann said he's looking forward to going to work.

"I have a whole lot of different certification and training and this will be a chance to put it all together to be as much a benefit for kids as I can be.

"I'm really excited about it. It's a unique opportunity to fulfill a lot of different roles and try to see how all the roles fit together to make an effective school."

He is certified to teach learning disabled, behavioral disorder, and mentally-handicapped children, said Mann. In addition, Mann said he is certified as an elementary and secondary counselor, a psychological examiner, and has a director of special services administrative certification.

Once he completes a summer class he is now taking at Southeast Missouri State University, he will also be certified as an elementary principal, he said.

Fuemmeler said he believes dividing the superintendent and principal positions will be a plus for the district.

"I think there are a number of issues that he will be able to handle on a day-to-day basis," he said, "particularly some of your student issues and student-teacher relations."

The arrangement, Fuemmeler said, will also give more time to concentrate on some of the budget issues the district is trying to work out to find funding sources through grant applications.

Nell Holcomb, Fuemmeler said, is involved in a five-year school improvement plan with the state. All schools, he said, will go through the review process, the newest method for accrediting school programs.

A review team from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education visited the school, he said. Fuemmeler said he believed the district received the final report in February.

Mann said he holds a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's degree in psychological counseling, both from Southeast. Currently, he said, he is working on obtaining a specialist degree in administration from Southeast.