Cape school officials to look at other options for preschool

Cape Girardeau public school officials still will look at ways to establish a preschool now that a proposed partnership with National Asset Recovery Services Inc. has been scrapped.

"I don't have plans to bring it back up right now," superintendent Dr. David Scala said Thursday. But he said school officials haven't given up on establishing a preschool somewhere in the district.

While the school board hasn't reached a consensus about how best to operate a preschool, Scala said, officials remain convinced the school is needed. They say it would help at-risk children get off on a solid footing in school.

"I think it is really something that we need in our district if we want to try to even up the playing field for children coming into school," Scala said.

Scala said the district originally planned to take a year to study the issue. "The NARS situation just presented an opportunity to move faster on it," he said.

That won't happen now.

The school board deadlocked on a 3-3 vote Feb. 12 over whether to proceed with a plan to open a preschool in the former Sears building in the Town Plaza, space that would have been provided by NARS. The company has leased part of the building to house a call center.

NARS had offered 7,600 square feet of space for a preschool and child-care facility that would serve children of the company's employees as well as the general public. The company also offered to pay the utilities.

The proposal failed to garner a majority vote after some board members voiced concern about putting a preschool near a pawnshop that sells guns.

In addition, board member Charles Bertrand had questioned the legality of establishing a preschool that would serve some students who live outside the district. Under the proposal, NARS employees would have been able to enroll their children in the preschool even if they lived outside of the district.

But state education officials say the school system could legally serve preschool children who live outside the district boundaries. The state doesn't require public schools to offer preschool programs, and students in such programs aren't counted in calculating state aid, said Kris Morrow, assistant general counsel for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

As a result, the district wouldn't face any legal hurdle in setting up such a preschool, she said.

NARS president Chris Buehrle said earlier this week that the company can't wait on the school district. The company has advertised for proposals from child-care providers. Proposals are due to the company by Wednesday.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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