LETTERS: CLIPPARD LISTS WERE SHARED BY ALL

To the editor:

I must address the comments made by the Speak Out caller March 15.

The caller stated that "PTA officers who typed the school directory knew in mid-July which teachers the students would have." I was the officer responsible for preparing the Clippard school directory. I received teacher-student information the same way all the other parents did: Lists were posted at school about a week before school started.

If memory serves me correctly, school started Aug. 17, 1997, and lists were posted around Aug. 18 or Aug. 20. It is evident that it was the latter part of August as opposed to mid-July that parents, students and PTA officers knew which teachers the students would have. There was no select group who received information prior to that. The information I used to prepare the directories was obtained from a computer printout dated Sept. 5, 1997.

There was a more specific issue last fall relating to which teacher the students would have. Perhaps the caller if referring to the kindergarten enrollment at Clippard. Many parents (I was one of them) did not know if their child would even be able to attend Clippard's kindergarten last fall. There were talks of busing and lotteries. In the end, the school board opted to establish a third kindergarten class at Clippard. Even after this was know, neither I nor anyone else to my knowledge was given special information regarding teachers' names.

In the five years that I have had a child at Clippard, the procedure for determining which teacher my child would have has always been the same. We look for the lists to be posted a week to 10 days prior to the first day of school. I believe this will continue to be the procedure for years to come, and I do not expect the school to play favorites.

MARK FLUEGGE

Cape Girardeau