PAST BOARD MEMBERS MAKE UP SCHOOL'S FUND-RAISING ARM

A Cape Girardeau school district fund-raising foundation established in December 1993 has been revived with four former school board members at the helm.

The four are Kathy Swan, Pat Ruopp, Lyle Davis and Ed Thompson. All either resigned from the school board or decided not to run for re-election this year. Steve Wright, a current school board member, also serves on the foundation board.

Foundation board members were to meet today to establish bylaws. As part of the bylaw development, the group will decide how many directors the board should have, what the terms should be and if school board members should be represented.

The foundation has about $7,500 in the bank, which has been collected over the summer as part of a campaign by the athletic department to raise money for a high school track.

The foundation board was incorporated at the December 1993 school board meeting and registered with the secretary of state's office in January 1994. The seven members of the school board at that time were named as foundation directors. Swan said the board members were named for lack of seven other people to pick.

School attorney Diane Howard said the foundation board wasn't designed to be the school board or this particular group of people. These people were named to get the paperwork filed, but the intent was to develop a community-based group.

Howard said that in August, while preparing annual paperwork for the foundation, she wrote letters to the seven board members informing them they were still foundation board members. Because all but one no longer served on the school board, Howard wondered if they wanted to remain on the foundation board.

John Campbell, who resigned from the board in April, also resigned from the foundation board. Gwen Bennett, who served on the board in 1993, attended one meeting of the foundation board and then resigned. The other five members have remained.

Swan is president, Ruopp is secretary and Davis is treasurer. The vice president will be named after other foundation board members have been recruited. Swan expects the foundation board to have more than its current five directors. But she was uncertain how many.

Bob Fox, president of the school board, said: "I'm excited that the foundation is there and provides an avenue to collect money for the school district. This is a way for former board members who want to to devote their time and energy to something good for the school district."

But Fox hopes the foundation board will include several members of the school board. "It's an independent foundation that the board has no control over," he said. "If we have a foundation that the school board has no control over, that might be a factor sometime in the future."

Fox hasn't been invited to any foundation meetings.

Superintendent Neyland Clark serves as an adviser to the group and is the official contact for the secretary of state's office.

Last spring the school district went through a tumultuous period, with questions about documentation of travel expenses and use of a district American Express card. The school board canceled the credit card and tightened accounting practices. In a closed-door meeting days before the April board election, the board extended Clark's contract for a year. Campbell left the closed meeting early; he didn't know a vote would be held. He resigned.

Swan, who served as vice president of the school board last year, was in line to become president of the school board this year. However, after two new members were seated in April, the board chose Fox as president and Wright as vice president. Swan and Ruopp resigned the same week. Under a rarely used state law, three new school board members were appointed by the county commission.

Swan said that serving on the foundation board gives the former board members an opportunity to continue working with the school district.

"We still feel there is work to be done," she said. "We would like to help the school district. We are all still very interested. We haven't turned our backs."

Swan has solicited advice from other foundations and has been told to move slowly and carefully in development of the organization. "We want to do it right and want people to feel comfortable with the foundation," she said. "We don't want to step on toes or close any doors."