Brad Hollerbach is the Director of Information Technology for the Southeast Missourian. His opinions are his own and do not reflect those of the newspaper or its editorial board. He writes this blog primarily for his own amusement and to parody the absurdities of the world we live in. He lives with his wife and two cats that don't really care for one another in Cape.

Population Belch Requires $15M for Cape High School?

Posted Tuesday, December 8, 2009, at 12:00 AM

I read in the Southeast Missourian last week that some of the Cape Girardeau Public School buildings have problems and the district needs to spend money to fix those problems.

They need to spend a lot of money. About forty million dollars is their current estimate.

I hate reading reports like that. They always seem to precede my taxes going up.

Over a third of the forty million is slated for Cape Central High School. You know, the Cape Central High School that is just seven years old. According to that school's principal they were "out of space" when it opened in September 2002.

I found this statement very interesting. I didn't realize that the city of Cape had had a population explosion. Just to check, I found the following at the Census Bureau website for the city of Cape Girardeau:

Total Population
2008: 37,332 (estimate)
2000: 35,349
1990: 34,438
1980: 34,361

That's not what I would call an explosion. That's only about an 8.6% increase in 28 years. It's more like a population belch and not a very loud one at that. It's the kind of belch where you say, "Excuse me." and the person closest to you asks "Why?"

So I thought maybe the school age portion of our population -- those from five to 17 -- had increased dramatically and found these census figures for Cape:

Population Between 5 and 17
2008: 5,144 (estimate)
2000: 5,361
1990: 5,222
1980: 5,462

No explosion there either. It looks to me like our school age population is what demographers would call "flat" and has been for at least the last 30 years.

So that I have this issue straight in my head, let me recap.

The school district approved spending $17.4 million in 2001 for a new high school that is eleven percent bigger than the old one, but the administration now says it was too small the day it opened even though the district has not experienced any significant growth since at least 1980.

If this is truly the case, then it looks to me like someone did some awfully poor planning back when the high school on Silver Springs Road was built. There's no good reason for the school not being big enough.

And now the district wants to spend close to $15 million just for projects at the high school. They want to add 16 classrooms, a 750-seat auditorium and an event complex increasing the school's size by about 25%.

The superintendent of the Cape Girardeau school district claims they can move forward with a bond issue as high as $43 million without increasing the tax rate.

Perhaps, that is true. The current property tax rate in Cape is $4.16 for every hundred dollars of assessed valuation. It includes 56 cents approved by voters a decade ago that has partially been used to pay off the bonds issued for our too-small high school. I suspect if the latest bond issue comes to pass that we will be asked to continue this tax.

Perhaps my property taxes won't technically go up if this bond issue is put before the voters and passes, but it would sure be nice if they actually went down for a change.

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Brad you are at it again. Trying to use logic and facts to combat poor planning, bold ambition, and political chicanery. But be careful of what you say say about the educational sector. When superintendents and principals make as much as some CEOs of large companies they are very protective of their fat paychecks. But bigger schools mean bigger salaries, so there you go!

Keep up the good work in pointing out the bizzare.

-- Posted by ParkerDaws on Tue, Dec 8, 2009, at 6:49 AM
I was a member of the final graduating class at the old High School Class of '02. When they had the open house and allowed people to tour the facility i remember feeling cramped in that building. If it is in fact 11% bigger than the old building that 11% must all be in the Cafeteria,library,and athletics areas because the building itself seems small, and felt cramped even before students came in. That said both gyms are smaller than those at the old building.

I still think Basketball games need to be held in the "new gym" at the old High school.

In my days at CHS there were several classes held in the Junior High building (now Middle School) Art, English, Biology, Some History and Economics etc. I know they moved the art classes into the new building, but those alone could quickly eat into that elusive 11%.

The new building should have been larger with rooms that were empty but available for expansion. They could have used them for study hall or any other number of reasons until the space was needed to add a subject to the curriculum, or add and aditional classroom for a subject/elective that had a high student enrollment.

Bad planning all the way around in my opinion.

-- Posted by Bushman_212 on Tue, Dec 8, 2009, at 11:52 AM
While researching this blog, I found one report that indicated that over a third of the old Central High was gym areas. The report showed total square footage as 177,500 feet with gym areas accounting for 63,500. Of course things get fuzzy when you are talking about a campus setting and square footage and what is actually counted (how do you treat the pool and the "bubble" for instance?) Another report indicated that the old high school is 185,000 square feet. I went with that figure.

The new gym is definitely smaller than old. My elementary school's gym / cafeteria would almost give it a run for its money.

Thanks for reading.

-- Posted by Brad_Hollerbach on Tue, Dec 8, 2009, at 12:13 PM
Who built the high school? They had problems from day one. I was in the building during it's first school year of being opened, and there was a heavy downpour of rain, and all of the counselors offices that have windows facing Silver Springs was leaking like crazy.... not from the windows but like the entire wall leaked. Reminds me of all the problems with Jackson school and their new roof, and not to mention the new Federal Building.

Man, if I ever move from my current house there is no way I would buy a home in Cape Girardeau that is less than 5 years old....don't know who you can trust to build things around here anymore!

-- Posted by Skeptic1 on Tue, Dec 8, 2009, at 12:14 PM
According to the newspaper archives, Kiefner Brothers was the low-bidder in 2001 with Penzel Construction a close second.

TFR

-- Posted by Brad_Hollerbach on Tue, Dec 8, 2009, at 2:13 PM
Brad... Interesting numbers. However, there might be a story inside the numbers. I wonder what the population of school age children is by age (year). There could be some classes (age groups) that are much larger than others.

Also, 11% isn't that much of an increase when you think about it. For general purposes let see a 100 square foot room is increased by 11%. The room is now 111 square feet.

-- Posted by SEMissouri70 on Tue, Dec 8, 2009, at 4:00 PM
SEMissouri70, while I don't have the population of school age children by year, the Cape Public Elementary Schools have an average of 329 students per class K thru 4. Cape Middle School (Grades 5 and 6) have an average of 277 while CJHS (Grades 7 and 8) have 260. The high school has an average of 294 per grade. The alternative school has 109 students.

Forecasting how many students will stay in the public school system has to require a lot of guess work. I would be curious to know, how many students either drop out or transfer to Notre Dame or Saxony or go to the Career and Technology Center or get home schooled.

You're right about the 11%. It's not much. However, a third of the old high school -- 63,500 square feet -- was "gym areas" which seems like a lot. While I don't know the size of the gym areas at the new school, the one time I was there they seemed quite small.

I guess what puzzles me are the articles I've reviewed from 2001 when the Board selected a contractor. While the cost was within the budget and some frills were not being purchased at that time, I saw no mention of the school needing 16 more classrooms. That's basics.

TFR

-- Posted by Brad_Hollerbach on Tue, Dec 8, 2009, at 4:43 PM

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