PARENTS PUSH FOR PRINCIPAL; WASHINGTON'S PTA STARTS PETITION DRIVE

Members of Washington Elementary School's PTA have already gathered 200 signatures of people who are against a school board proposal not to hire a full-time principal for the school in the fall.

The petition drive began Thursday night at a PTA meeting attended by about 200 parents.

Thomas M. Meyer, PTA president, said the proposal is not only unfair to teachers and students, but has opened the door to questions about the parity of a list of cutbacks proposed by the school board last week.

Washington School is one of two in the Cape Girardeau School District that may be forced to share a principal next year as part of $1.2 million in budget cuts approved by the Cape Girardeau Board of Education. The other school is May Greene.

"What we're seeing come out of this is a more thorough study of these cuts," Meyer said.

But he added that when the board singled out Washington and May Greene which have the smallest enrollments of the six Cape Girardeau elementary schools to share the burden of the budget cuts in ways the other schools won't, they touched a nerve with parents and teachers.

"It's unequal," he said. "For example, there are five coaches at Central (High School) and four at the junior high. They weren't touched.

"When parents sense that kind of inequality, they really take it to heart."

School board members have said hiring just one principal for the two schools has not been formally approved but is a possibility.

Kathy Swan, who is running for a seat on the school board, attended the PTA meeting and said she supports the petition drive because it advocates every school being treated equally.

"Every school should have a principal and every school should be treated alike," Swan said. "I don't understand how a school can function effectively without a leader."

Meyer said in the scope of more than $1 million in budget cuts, the salary of one principal about $50,000 including benefits is "small potatoes."

"And this is a real priority not only with parents, but teachers as well," he said.

The PTA plans to present the petition to the school board at its April 14 meeting, along with a demand that each elementary school in the district have a full-time principal.

He said parents plan to circulate the petition throughout the city, not only to parents in the Washington School district. He said copies of the petition will also be distributed to several local businesses. It is hoped at least 10,000 signatures are gathered, he said.

On Thursday, parents were also urged to contact board members by phone to express their opposition to a part-time principal.

The petition states that a principal in an elementary school "provides the essential functions of administration and discipline" and insures a quality education is provided to each student.

"The principal position further provides necessary support to the educational staff, allowing their emphasis to focus on the teaching of the curriculum during the most vital learning years of a student's life," it states.

School officials have said the option of eliminating one principal came about after the principal at Washington, Jim Watkins, requested Feb. 13 to be transferred to Franklin School, thus creating a vacancy at Washington.

The principal at Franklin, Ron Haggard, has announced he will resign at the end of the year. School officials have not said if administration of both Washington and May Greene will fall on the shoulders of Sam Jarrell, principal at May Greene.