Building schools

The Cape Girardeau School District formed a steering committee and has been studying its facilities and surveying teachers for about a year. It's a $40 million proposal that mainly targets seven district buildings.

In Kelso, the district has been saving money for a few years to set the wheels in motion for a new building. It's a kindergarten-through-eighth grade school where the class sizes average about 10 students.

I visited the school Wednesday to talk with Superintendent Bill Rogers and board president Gary Reischman.

The district rents a four-story building from the Catholic Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau.

Being four stories has its setbacks. The school's only set of bathrooms is located on the first floor above the basement. Noise is a problem in the aging facility. Some classrooms are also connected. The picture above shows the path through one classroom to get to another.

The building, constructed in 1938, has served the students well, Rogers said. But a new building could offer more.

"They're learning a lot but they don't have an ideal learning environment," he said.

A steering committee started meeting during the summer. The district recently started working with Jackson architect John Dudley. It has a bonding capacity of more than $3 million and Rogers said he does not expect the project will reach that number.

In September, the district distributed about 1,500 surveys to voters to gauge opinions about whether to renovate or rebuild.

Reischman said respondents were strongly in favor of building a new school.

"I think people see the need," he said. "In my opinion, it was very overwhelming."

To read more about the construction projects in the Cape Girardeau School District, click here. Check tomorrow's paper to read more about Kelso's construction project.