ZLOKOVICH WON'T STOP ASKING QUESTIONS

The questions have not stopped just because Martha Zlokovich won a seat on the Cape Girardeau Board of Education last month.

In the past three years, Zlokovich has been a vocal school patron who used personal time to research trends in elementary school enrollments, federal educational funding for poverty-stricken students and other topics.

If the answers weren't found in the data, she'd meet with school district superintendent Dan Steska and other administrators or with school board members looking for better explanations.

Zlokovich finally decided that anyone with that much interest in school issues should run for school board.

After a spirited but unsuccessful run last year, she won a seat on the board in April, mainly by talking about her professional background and again, asking questions.

"Part of my job is teaching, part of it is research," she said. "That's a skill I have to offer to the board."

Following an informal lunch with three board members and Steska Thursday, Zlokovich said, "Maybe I would look at questions or ask them a different way."

Most recently, she has questioned the board's role in making district decisions.

Lunch meeting

Would they be more hands-on in daily operations? she asked. Or would they rely on administrators to make recommendations that matched district goals?

The latter was the answer, said school board president Dr. Bob Fox, who attended the lunch to help Zlokovich get to know the other board members better. Board members David Goncher and Sharon Mueller also attended the meeting.

"We're basically a policy-making organization," Fox said. "We set goals about where we want to be in an amount of time and what we want to accomplish, and we entrust Dan to be the CEO and run things day-to-day to help us get there."

It was the answer Zlokovich, based on past experiences with the board and training she received from the Missouri School Boards Association.

Even with the training, it's hard for her to reconcile her new role with the hands-on teaching style she uses as an associate professor of child and adolescent development at Southeast Missouri State University,

"In my everyday job, I'm pretty much in control," Zlokovich said. "It's very different to rely upon a whole hierarchy to be in control before a decision ever gets to me. I want someone to know if I'm making the final decisions at this level, why did I make this decision."

Many meetings

One thing Zlokovich has learned in her first month on the board is that they meet -- a lot, and outside of meetings, there are budgets and policies to study, an upcoming tax increase proposal to campaign for, and questions from voters or parents that need answering.

Zlokovich also must complete 16 hours of school board association training this year to improve her understanding of policy-making, school budgets and finance matters, and school law.

To concentrate on her new duties, she scale back some activities at Centenary United Methodist Church where she serves as co-president of the Rebecca Circle and a member of United Methodist Women. Memberships with the Garden Club, Zonta International and professional organizations will take a back seat to the school board.

However, she plans to continue bike riding, Scouting and other activities with her husband, Neil, and their two sons, Aaron, 13, and Matthew, 9.

"I'll have to cut back in order to do a good job on the school board, but it's important to me I'm actually spending time with my children and family," Zlokovich said. "I feel like I'm jumping in with both feet, but I'm getting a lot of help from the other board members."