STATE'S CONVICTED TEACHERS FACE HEARINGS

A former Poplar Bluff teacher will be among nine former educators who could lose their teaching certificates when the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education begins certificate revocation hearings next week.

Gov. Mel Carnahan issued an executive order this year directing state agencies to work together to locate and discipline teachers found guilty of crimes. On June 12, he signed legislation that authorizes state agencies to work together to identify teachers convicted of serious felonies, sex crimes and crimes against children.

Previously, local school districts were responsible for initiating certificate revocation proceedings.

Missouri Commissioner of Education Robert Bartman said DESE officials are "moving aggressively" this summer to investigate some 60 convicted felons identified as having Missouri teaching certificates. After the hearings, DESE officials will submit revocation recommendations to the State Board of Education.

"Under the old law, there were so many loopholes that it was often difficult for us to take action against a teacher who was charged with a crime or who might be considered a threat to children and other school personnel," Bartman said. "Now we have the tools we need to do a better, faster job of dealing with these problems."

A July 29 administrative hearing is scheduled for William Salyer, a former Poplar Bluff junior-high-school music teacher.

Salyer was charged in 1993 with first-degree sexual assault and bribery of a public servant. The sexual assault charge was the result of Salyer having intercourse with a 14-year-old girl. He was charged with bribery after he offered Poplar Bluff police detective Chuck Stratton, who was serving a search warrant, about $1,800 to leave some letters written by the victim that were found at Salyer's house.

He pleaded guilty to both charges in 1994 and received consecutive seven- and three-year sentences.

Salyer is being held at the Farmington Correctional Center. He was denied parole in 1995 but is expected to be placed on conditional, supervised release next March.

Leaders of two state education organizations praised the new legislation. School districts have done a good job policing their employees in the past, but the new law's emphasis on state agency cooperation will mean safer classrooms for Missouri schoolchildren, they said.

Donna Collins, president of the Missouri National Education Association, said: "We could be encouraged that of those who have been identified many aren't currently teaching, which means administrators and school districts have placed into practice policies that would check into the backgrounds of teachers and would-be teachers seeking employment in their districts. This is a more uniform policy statewide, so you don't have to rely an a district by district review."

Kent King, executive director of the Missouri State Teachers Association, said the new process will lessen the number of educators who have been convicted of serious crimes but haven't been caught and continue to teach. The legislation will be effective as long as the emphasis is placed on serious crimes, especially those involving children, he said.

"Those are things that if there's not a coordinated effort they might slip through the cracks," he said.