CITY LEADERS GEAR UP TO `SELL SCHOOLS'

Citizens for Better Schools is putting its money where its mouth is.

The group plans to spend about $50,000 in private contributions to promote passage of a bond issue and tax hike in the Cape Girardeau School District.

By law, the school district is prohibited from spending money to campaign for passage of the two funding measures.

Voters are being asked to approve a $25 million bond issue and a 27-cent hike in the building fund levy to finance construction of a new elementary school and a middle school, and make improvements to existing schools.

Cape Girardeau banker Jim Lim~baugh is finance chairman for the group.

He views the April 6 ballot issues as "an investment in the future and a direct self-help kind of project."

The measures would result in a total levy hike of 99 cents, according to school officials.

While tax increases are never popular, Limbaugh insists there's a difference between any federal or state tax hikes and local funding issues.

"I think people create ownership directly in a local tax issue like this," he said.

The difference, he said, is that the citizens will be able to see the actual improvements paid for with their tax dollars as opposed to some distant state or federal project.

Both Limbaugh and Harry Rediger, who heads the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce board of directors, see the funding measures as not only an education issue, but an economic development matter.

"It is another piece of the pie as far as an infrastructure that is necessary to further the continued growth of our city," said Rediger, who is treasurer for the campaign group.

Tomorrow's workforce must be educated and computer literate, he said. That's hard to do with antiquated school buildings, he main~tained.

"The facilities we have are worn out and have served their time, and they certainly won't carry us into the next century," said Rediger.

The plan calls for closing two aging elementary schools and the seventh-grade-only L.J. Schultz School.

"For the business community, it is an investment in the future," said Rediger, pointing out that new and improved schools provide the potential for economic growth.

Cape Girardeau's citizens, he maintained, would benefit from improved property values.

Martha Hamilton, president of the Cape Girardeau County Board of Realtors, believes passage of the two school measures "will make this area much more attractive to new businesses and new industry.

Hamilton said it should ultimately help boost residential property values. Currently, homes in the May Greene and Washington elementary school districts of the city are more difficult to sell because of the aging schools, she said.

She said the problem doesn't rest with the teachers. "It's not the faculty, it's the facilities," she observed.

While there doesn't appear to be any organized opposition to the school measures, one former educator has come out against them.

Fred W. Withrow served the school district for 25 years 24 of them as principal at various schools before retiring in 1976.

He doesn't believe the district needs to build a new elementary school and middle school at this time, or make major renovations to existing schools.

"I am for good schools, but good schools start with good teachers," he said.

Withrow said he believes in good education programs, but "you can have that out under a shade tree."

"Buildings are just like an automobile, it is something to use," said Withrow.

He said he has visited all three schools that the district wants to close. In sharp contrast to supporters of the ballot measures, he contended the three schools are all in "good structural shape."

Withrow said there is no need to air condition existing schools, nor spend money to make them more earthquake resistant.

"I really don't think it (air conditioning) is practical for any school unless you are way down South," he said.

Withrow believes it's unrealistic to spend money on earthquake protection. He dismisses concerns about possible earthquake damage as "just a sales pitch."

He also contends that if the school district is going to build any new elementary school, it should be on the city's northwest side rather than at the proposed site of Sprigg and Bertling, which is on the city's northeast side.

Withrow said the proposed extension of Sprigg Street and the Lexington arterial project will lead to increased traffic in the very area proposed for the new schools.

Withrow said he's not surprised there's no organized opposition. "It's easy to organize for something, but very difficult to organize against something."

He said, however, that he has talked to a number of Cape Girardeau residents who oppose the ballot measures. "I will be greatly surprised if this even comes close to passing."

But Rediger and other school supporters say there's been a "tremendous, positive response" to the ballot measures from service clubs and community residents.

Still, Rediger said passage of the two measures, one requiring a simple majority and the other a four-sevenths majority, is far from certain.

"The looming figure out there is the large amount of people who are saying they are undecided," said Rediger.

Larry Dew, business manager for the Cape Girardeau Public Schools, said it will take a community effort to pass the funding measures.

He estimated that of about 19,000 voters in the school district, only about 3,400, or 18 percent, have children in the public schools. Another 8 percent have children in parochial schools.

Then, there are senior citizens. Conventional wisdom says that elderly voters generally oppose tax measures.

According to census figures, nearly 5,700 Cape Girardeau residents, or 16.5 percent of the city's population, are over 62 years of age.

"The total community has to get involved in this," said Dew of efforts to pass the school measures. "Ten or 15 years ago, they (schools) would just get the parents of the students out, but that is not the case anymore."

Limbaugh said that now is the time to pass a bond issue. He said interest rates on bonds are the lowest they've been since World War II.

"That's a more-bang-for-your-buck issue," he said.

School officials say that if the funding package doesn't pass, they will ultimately have to go back to the voters. The needs won't go away, they say.

That, in turn, could mean even bigger costs for the taxpayers if interest rates climb.

"There is a general feeling in the financial community that interest rates will rise in the near future not dramatically, but any increase is that much more in terms of interest expense," said Limbaugh.

The proposed $25 million bond issue is expected to end up costing about $43 million if retired over 20 years. That reflects total interest payments of $18 million on interest rates ranging from 3.2 to 6.15 percent over the life of the bond issue, Dew said.

A rise in interest rates would require a higher tax levy to retire the bonds than the 72-cent hike currently proposed, Limbaugh said.

"Time is money in the truest since of the phrase," he said.