ROTATION SYSTEM FAVORED; BOARD WILL LOOK AT PRINCIPAL ROTATION

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- A proposal by Cape Girardeau Board of Education member Johnny James to rotate elementary principals among the school district's six elementary buildings met with some support and calls for more discussion

The proposal was at Tuesday's Board of Education meeting. The board also discussed its visit to a St. Louis-area middle school.

In making his proposal, James said, "All our principals have strengths and weaknesses. By leaving them in the same place for ever and ever, I think we negate their strengths and accentuate their weaknesses.

"With Mr. Clippard retiring, we have a perfect opportunity to implement this idea."

Charles Clippard, principal of Hawthorn Elementary School, announced his retirement at the meeting. He has served as principal for 35 years. The district begins the search to hire a new elementary principal today.

Carolyn Kelley, board president, said, "Every teacher should have had the opportunity to teach under Charlie Clippard. Those who were lucky enough to be at Hawthorn had that opportunity, but other teachers missed out."

James suggested that principals should stay at a particular building "no more than three years, and I think two years is probably better."

Board member John Campbell questioned the idea. He said, "If the time is too short a period there will be no accountability on the part of the principal."

Kelley added, "Maybe it should be five years."

James responded, "I don't know what the magical number is but personally I think five years is too long."

Richard Bollwerk, director of elementary education, said: "There has to be a significant period of time for the principal to assess what things ought to be changed and time to carry that out.

"There are pros and cons to the idea," Bollwerk said. "When we hire a principal, we look at the characteristics of that school and the needs of that school and try to find the right person for that school."

"I agree with that," James said, "but I think we use that up after a period. A move would serve to spark that enthusiasm again and it would serve to revitalize the staff with him or her coming into a different school."

Board member Pat Ruopp said, "I seems like the idea has real merit and needs to be investigated further."

Campbell asked for further discussion on the idea from staff members, especially principals.

Four of the five board members visited Holman Middle School in Pattonville Tuesday. Ruopp was unable to attend.

Kelley explained that the Pattonville school was chosen to visit because it has been selected an "exemplary middle school and has received national acclaim."

"We felt if we begin to look at a middle school for us," she said, "we want to look at those with national acclaim."

Board members sat in on a meeting with a team of sixth grade teachers. The team of four teachers taught a group of 80 students.

During the meeting, Kelley said, teachers discussed classwork and the students, especially one boy who had apparently begun experimenting with drugs.

"After the meeting," board member Ed Thompson said, "I talked with a teacher about that child and asked if she would have discovered that problem in a different teaching situation. She said no. No one of the teachers had picked up on it, but in their round-table discussion, which they have every day, they found it."

James said, "I was impressed with the amount of time teachers have because of working in teams. They were able to work with students about specific problems."

James said he was also impressed with the school's physical layout. "The sixth, seventh and eighth grades were kept separate. And the sixth graders received a lot of attention so they become successful."

Campbell said the school offers an alternative program, a self-contained classroom, "for sixth graders who because of maturity or other reasons is not ready for the team approach."

Thompson, who recently attended a national education meeting, said he talked with people from several school districts which had made a switch to the middle school, team-teaching approach.

"They had some resistance too," he said. "But they went ahead and bit the bullet and have had good success. It's really something you have to see."

Kelley said, "It's time for us to move off center on this. We will be talking a lot more about it in days to come."