Cape schools and bonds: Room to learn and play

Julie Deneke balanced a coffee mug and opened the door as she maneuvered her cart of supplies out of the room.

"I can spin it while I'm walking," she said as she headed down the hallway at Cape Girardeau Central High School.

Deneke, a social studies teacher, is one of about 10 teachers at the high school that does not have a classroom. Instead, she pushes a cart from room to room with textbooks, a file of papers, paper clips, pens and pencils.

Deneke said she knows exactly how many carts, teachers and students will fit into the elevator. She also learned how to maneuver through crowds of students during class changes.

"I've gotten good with the brakes," she said.

As the district plans for the largest and most expensive overhaul of its facilities in recent history, the high school would receive the biggest chunk of funds, $14.57 million. Plans include a two-story, 16-classroom addition on the south end of the building.

When the building opened in 2002, there was not enough space, said principal Dr. Mike Cowan. Business classes were taught at the nearby Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center. Walls were constructed in five special education classrooms to make two rooms out of one.

"The building wasn't large enough when we moved in and the district knew that," Cowan said.

In the spring, district officials asked for public input on its plan for construction and renovation projects. Requests to finish projects at the high school resonated with them. The facilities plan, unveiled in September, outlined $40 million in projects that would be included in a no-tax-rate-increase bond issue pending school board approval.

When Central High School opened in September 2002 to accommodate grades nine through 12, other grades shifted throughout the district. The old high school at 205 Caruthers Ave. became Central Junior High, housing seventh-and eighth-graders. Fifth- and sixth-graders moved into Central Middle School from the elementary schools.

The former seventh-grade attendance center, the L.J. Schultz School, closed.

The high school construction project was the result of an $18 million bond issue in 2000. The district has not approached voters to request funds for capital projects since. While planning for the new school, officials also allocated space for future additions including an auditorium and stadium.

Ten years later, efforts to move forward, including plans to privately fund the stadium, have fallen short. The district pays Southeast Missouri State University about $10,000 a year to rent Houck Stadium for football games. Drama programs are performed in the auditorium at Central Junior High School and music performances are held in the cafeteria area.

"It's not the way a quality high school should present itself," Cowan said.

District officials said they are not planning to finish everything this time around. The facilities plan outlines more than $10 million in lower priority projects that could be addressed with future bond issues. That list includes visitor bleachers, another six-classroom addition and an artificial turf system for the stadium.

"It's like your budget at home," Cowan said. "Sometimes you have to wait until you can do it."

Despite space issues, the school added the Preparing for Academic Success program, which is required for all freshmen. To accommodate the new class, the school day was extended by 30 minutes. The program also has four teachers who do not have a classroom. When they are not teaching, they share a room in the administrative offices.

Cowan said he would also like to expand programming for family and consumer sciences and ceramics, classes that are always full.

"We don't have adequate space to house the current population," he said.

Mobile social studies teacher Julie Deneke rides the elevator to her office on the second floor Friday, December 11, 2009, at Central High. (Kit Doyle)

The 16-classroom addition would help, but space will still be tight, he said. He said he hopes to return the special education rooms to their original size with the addition.

In all, there are 54 traveling class sections. Teachers leave the classroom during their planning period so mobile teachers can use the room. The situation creates a scheduling nightmare, Cowan said.

"It's a huge puzzle every year," he said.

When she is not teaching, Deneke shares a small room on the second floor with two other teachers. Calling parents or tutoring students requires planning because of the shared space, she said.

She said the teachers cooperate and "make it work." If she forgets something in a classroom, it is still there the next day.

But attention to students suffers, she said. Last-minute questions often get put on the back burner.

"I'm not available after class because I have to get somewhere," she said.

When she arrives at her destination, class time is used to set up for the next lesson.

"That just takes up extra time that I could've been doing something more constructive," she said.

abusch@semissourian.com

388-3627

Coming Tuesday: A look at proposed projects in the elementary schools.

Central High School projects, by the numbers

$7.28 million: 750-seat auditorium

$4.31 million: Sixteen-room classroom wing

$2.44 million:Stadium complex

$543,000: Stadium restrooms and concession stand

Pertinent address:

1000 S. Silver Springs Rd. Cape Girardeau, MO