BOARD SEEKS INPUT ON MIDDLE SCHOOL

The Cape Girardeau Board of Education has changed tactics in pursuit of a middle school by asking the community for its input on the issue.

A plan, called Project Partnership: Schools and Community, was outlined by superintendent Neyland Clark at the school board meeting Tuesday night.

The plan calls for a three-stage development of a long-range master plan for the district over 14 months. The end product may or may not include building a middle school, Clark said.

At the school board's annual retreat in July, the board expressed a commitment toward building a middle school along with some other facility improvements in the district.

"At the time we talked about this," Clark said, "I expressed some concerns that we were skipping vital parts of the process of planning. And the board does not want to come across as dictating.

"I'm not saying we build a middle school and I'm not saying we don't; I'm saying we need to build the pillars of support and move closer to our constituents to let them tell us what we need to do."

Board Vice President Ed Thompson said: "We're not going to get anything done unless the community is behind us. We have heard input from the committee that studied the middle school, but we haven't heard input from the entire community."

Board member Carolyn Kelley said, "The board has said what we think we should do, but now we want all these other people to take a look at the situation and see if they feel the same way."

Board member Lyle Davis said: "Here's the educational process: Tell us what you want us to do. Communities typically support school districts when they understand what the needs are. But you can't try to shove anything down someone's throat."

Several board members said they hope the community assessment of the school district's needs would match their own.

Clark's proposed plan begins with development of an information base.

Clark said: "Following the infamous retreat to Paducah, I kept hearing all this talk that we were going to build a middle school, and I got very uncomfortable. We need to go back and start covering all the bases.

"Rather than the board taking on a perception that they are trying to dictate to the community, we need a structure to open an avenue for the community to develop expectations of where we are and what we need to do."

He has lined up two experts to help with the process: James Oglesby of the University of Missouri-Columbia and Leslie Cochran, provost at Southeast Missouri State University.

Specifically, Clark proposes that administrators collect "hard data" about the schools. "How many library books we have per 100 students; what instructional space we have per group of students."

He suggested surveying the community and teachers about their attitudes toward the school district.

The major portion of the first stage would be formation of the Cape Girardeau Citizens Advisory Commission of Education.

"It would be kind of a variation of the athletic task force, except it's not a task force. A commission has a much more broad base."

Clark said he envisions 300 to 500 community members working toward the long-range master plan through committees. He suggested three committees: educational directions, enrollment and finance projections, and facilities usage alternatives.

"I think perhaps we need to think about removing the board from this process," Clark said.

Once an information base is laid, Clark said, a more specific plan would be outlined for elementary-, middle- and senior-high-level education.

The third stage would be implementation of the long-range plan.