By STEVE ROCK
The Kansas City Star Posted on Tue, Apr. 12, 2005 BOONVILLE, Mo. - Before a standing-room-only crowd of 75 or more persons, the prospective new operators of Kemper Military School found themselves on the defensive Monday night. The setting was a public hearing at City Hall at which residents were invited to show support or voice concerns about a recent bid to purchase Kemper. The school, which closed in 2002, has been owned by the city since April 2003. A group led by Robert Lichfield, the founder of a controversial association of boarding schools, submitted a formal offer in March to purchase the seven buildings and adjacent property. Lichfield's group would lease the facility to brothers Randall and Russell Hinton, who would operate it. Lichfield was not at Monday's meeting, but Randall and Russell Hinton have moved to Boonville and attended. Outside City Hall, protesters holding signs met the Hintons. "Our plan," Randall Hinton told the crowd inside, "is to open the Kemper campus as Kemper." The secretary of the Kemper alumni association expressed support, saying the Hinton brothers should get the chance "to do what's right for Kemper." Another graduate reiterated that position. However, Tom Maxwell, who attended Kemper from 1950-55 and has lived in Boonville for 12 years, said he had nothing against the Hintons, "but I see absolutely no credibility whatsoever to reopen Kemper." After speaking, Maxwell received a round of applause. "These guys are not qualified to run a military school," Maxwell said after the meeting, which lasted nearly two hours. "If they want to run a boys' school, that's one thing. But that's not Kemper." There were questions about Lichfield's organization, called the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools. The organization has been the subject of abuse allegations, which an official has denied. Randall Hinton said after the meeting that the questions raised were fair and the concerns were valid. He countered those who said he and his brother are too young and don't have the credentials to run a military school - Randall is 30, Russell is 26 - by stressing that both had a long history of working with troubled teens. "That's where our experience is going to come into play," he said.