ROTATION OF PRINCIPALS FALLS SHORT AS A PROPOSAL

There is nothing wrong with educational innovation. Through foresight and invention, the system advances. However, innovation is flighty experimentation without a clear purpose apparent. More importantly, it can fall short in a school setting if there is no educational grounding for the idea being tried, nor any reasonable line of authority for making it a success. We believe a recent idea discussed by the Cape Girardeau Board of Education falls into the gloomy category of misplaced innovation.

The idea raised at a board meeting Tuesday involved the establishment of a rotation system among the principals of Cape Girardeau's six public elementary schools. The suggestion was made that these principals be shifted from school to school every few years; it was greeted with some favorable comments from board members and the promise of a more complete discussion later.

Granted, the idea was raised seemingly out of the blue and board members had little time to put together a considered response. One thing not heard was a reasoned explanation of how this idea would help in the education of Cape Girardeau's young people. Board President Carolyn Kelley offered only an intangible benefit of the idea: "Every teacher should have had the opportunity to teach under (retiring Hawthorn School Principal) Charlie Clippard. Those who were lucky enough to be at Hawthorn had that opportunity but other teachers missed out."

There is some logic to that statement, that shifting good principals from school to school would showcase their abilities for a broader range of teachers. What goes unsaid, however, is that nothing prevented Clippard from being shifted from school to school during his 35 years on the job; the option was always there and not utilized. This is more to the point.

In the public school system here, there are at least two layers of administration in place to make decisions on the movement of elementary principals the superintendent and the director of elementary education. They are trained educators paid to place personnel where academic goals will be best achieved. The policy-making school board would be overstepping its elected function by making de facto personnel decisions through implementation of an edict requiring the arbitrary rotation of principals.

With the search for a new superintendent under way, with school coffers not bulging, with nagging facilities questions and a middle school proposal begging, the board of education has a full platter for the near future. It should not stray from its policy-making duties; it should also let the administrators it pays do their jobs and let this rotation proposal die a quiet death.