ADVANCE SET TO START WORK ON NEW SCHOOLS

ADVANCE -- Last October, a group of concerned residents began raising funds to help build a new multipurpose room at Advance High School.

On Friday, ground was broken to begin construction of the multipurpose room, which also will serve as a gymnasium, and a high school building.

"It's gratifying for the whole community," said Dennis Lorch, president of the Advance Public Schools Foundation. "The gym facility was built sometime in the mid '30s, so it was getting quite a bit of age on it."

The foundation raised approximately $270,000 in donations and pledges to fund construction of the multipurpose room-gymnasium. Voters approved a $1 million bond issue to fund construction of the high school.

The foundation was formed after school board members were forced to cut plans for the multipurpose room back to 5,000 square feet because of cost constraints.

Jerry Robison, superintendent of schools, said the new 38,000-square foot high school will give the district room to grow in an up-to-date facility.

"The current high school was built in 1924," Robison said. The building is not air conditioned, and its wiring will not handle air conditioning or much of the technology needed for modern schools.

He said residents "faced the issues" and elected to provide funding for the new facilities.

Construction should be complete in August 1997, and the building should be ready for the start of the 1997-98 school year, Robison said.

Advance High School currently serves about 220 students.

The board hasn't yet discussed what to do with the existing high school once the new building is finished, Robison said.

Bridger Construction Co. of Sikeston was awarded a $2 million contract last month for the building project.

The foundation asked alumni from the 1920s through the last graduating class to help with the effort. Donations came in from former students and teachers across the nation from Florida to California.

"We got a lot of money from alumni from all parts of the country," Lorch said. "We did a lot of mailings, and we got contributions all the way from $10 to $30,000."

He said many of the donors "have been removed from the community for dozens of years, but they still feel an allegiance" to their alma mater.