Cape schools may seek renovation, addition plans

The Cape Girardeau school board could vote Monday to seek plans and cost estimates from architects and facility development firms for renovations to the district's central administration building and the junior high school, and major additions to the high school.

School district officials want to renovate part of the central administration building on Clark Avenue to house the Alternative Education Center. Renovations to the junior high school would include the metal buildings on campus, just south of the field house parking lot.

At the high school, district officials want to develop plans to complete the outdoor athletic facilities, including construction of concession stands, seating and lighting for tennis, baseball, softball, soccer, football and track.

Also on the drawing board are plans to construct an auditorium on the east end of the 5-year-old high school and add four classrooms on the south end of the school. The addition would feature two classrooms on the first floor and two on the second, school officials said.

Patrick Morgan, executive director of administrative services for the school district, said he hopes that overall plans and cost estimates for the various projects can be developed by late summer.

Morgan said renovation of the central administration building should be a top priority because the district's alternative school will lose its current home in Schultz School if the sale of that building is finalized next year as planned.

Even if the sale falls through, superintendent Dr. David Scala said the district needs to relocate the alternative school and provide it with a permanent home. Scala said the central administration building is newer and more energy-efficient than the aging Schultz School.

The alternative school serves more than 100 students on a typical school day. The center teaches students in grades seven through 12. The center also educates students serving short-term suspensions and runs an after-school program that allows students to make up coursework and catch up academically so they can graduate from high school.

Plans and cost estimates are needed for all five major projects to help the school board prioritize facility improvements for the next five years, Morgan said.

Scala said the district had hoped to have a five-year plan for facility improvements finalized by the end of June. But until cost estimates are developed for the major projects, the board won't be in a position to prioritize the projects, he said.

Monday's action doesn't guarantee that the five projects will be done, only that the initial planning will proceed, Scala said.

"We have to fit it into a plan of how we can finance them," the superintendent said.

Scala said it will be up to the school board to prioritize the projects. But Scala said transforming part of the central administration building into an alternative school and renovating the junior high school are top priorities in his view.

The school board is scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. Monday at the administration building. Also on the agenda is a proposal to allow the Boys and Girls Club of Cape Girardeau to relocate its offices and programs from its Broadway headquarters to unused space in the basement of the junior high school and in a metal building on the campus.

Under the proposal, the school district would provide the space free of charge. The club provides after-school and summer programs.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123