SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT RELEASED FROM DAILY DUTIES; CAPE SCHOOL BOARD GIVES APPROVAL FOR BASEBALL SCOREBOARD

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Superintendent of Schools Arthur Turner was released from his daily school-district duties during a meeting Tuesday of the Cape Girardeau Board of Education.

The board also approved an expenditure of $7,500 for a new baseball scoreboard.

Board President Carolyn Kelley said Turner was being released from his "daily contractual duties" so he could pursue other job options. "This is no reflection on his performance at this time," she said.

Turner has served as superintendent for 16 years.

The board appointed James Englehart, director of secondary education, interim superintendent until June 30 or until a new superintendent takes over.

The two finalists for the superintendency will be visiting Cape Girardeau this week. Neyland Clark, superintendent at Shepherdsville, Ky., will visit today, and Shelton Smith, superintendent at Herculaneum, will be here Thursday.

Parents and others will have an opportunity to meet with the candidates at meetings scheduled for 7:30 tonight and Thursday in the Central High School auditorium.

At the meeting Turner said: "I think we've done a lot of good things here and we have a great school system. I feel I have a lot to be proud of, but a lot of people had a hand in that. That's one of the reasons I don't feel so uneasy about leaving. I feel the good things will continue."

After the meeting Turner said the board offered to relieve him of the day-to-day activities of supervision and operation of the school system.

"I thought it was a considerate offer," he said. "I will be available to anyone in the system."

He said he would also be available to the new superintendent if requested.

Turner said he was in the midst of job hunting. "At this point there are things I have to do and people I have to talk to, and all that just takes some time."

Turner's contract with the district expires at the end of June.

The board, by a 3-2 vote, approved an expenditure of $7,500 toward the new baseball scoreboard. Kelley, Pat Ruopp and John Campbell voted in favor of the proposal; Ed Thompson and Johnny James voted against it.

The total cost of the scoreboard and installation is just over $13,000. Coca-Cola has offered $3,000 toward the purchase of the scoreboard. The Cape Central Booster Club has offered to pay the $2,500 cost of installation.

The school district is paying the remaining $7,500 costs. The money will come out of the building fund budget.

"This would take Mr. Ashby off the hook," said Kelley. "He wouldn't have to secure a note."

At last month's meeting, Terry Ashby, a member of an athletic task force that met two summers ago, offered to fund half of a $15,000 scoreboard personally, if the district would pay the remainder.

Tuesday, Ashby outlined a new proposal for a less expensive scoreboard. The original proposal was for a 36-foot scoreboard that displays scores by half-innings. The approved scoreboard also displays half-inning scores, but is 27 feet. The price of the smaller scoreboard is $10,600.

Thompson said: "I can't see where the school district is any better off this month. We still have to spend $7,500."

"I would like to have a new scoreboard, but I don't feel good about spending $7,500 to get it," said Thompson.

Campbell explained that the school board had adopted a set of recommendations of the athletic task force for several capital improvements. Among those recommendations was a new baseball scoreboard estimated to cost $10,000.

"Not a lot of progress has been made toward those improvements," Campbell said. "Whatever small progress we can make, we should do."

Kelley said: "We don't want to give the impression we are concentrating on athletics. The money will come from the building fund."

The board also approved a pilot breakfast program for students at May Greene Elementary School. It will begin April 1.