CITY SCHOOL OFFICIALS, OTHERS TO VISIT SCHOOL

Cape Girardeau school board members, school administrators, teachers and district patrons will travel to Troy, Ill., Saturday to tour a recently-built high school.

A group of about 45 people will make the trip by school bus to tour Triad High School about 30 miles east of St. Louis. The bus will leave at 6:30 a.m. from the Board of Education office at 61 N. Clark Anyone interested in making the trip should contact the board office.

Superintendent Dr. Dan Steska and three school board members toured four recently-constructed high schools in the St. Louis area last week. Three of the schools were in Rockwood School District in west St. Louis County. Glenn Construction, the company that served as project manager and monitored design and cost for all of the buildings, will make a presentation to the Cape Girardeau Board of Education at noon Thursday.

Triad High School, which cost about $25 million to build and furnish, was the fourth school toured last week. Board members Bob Blank, David Goncher and Sharon Mueller generally agreed with Steska that Triad came closest in size, cost and design to what the proposed Cape Girardeau high school should be.

Triad High School opened in the fall with an enrollment of about 1,100. The building, designed and built by Wm. B. Ittner Inc., is wired for future technology and will contain up to 2,000 students.

"I thought before we really talk anymore with the board they all ought to have an opportunity to see the school," said Steska. "We've also asked each principal to invite a couple of people who are very involved in their schools and teacher representatives to come along so we can get their thoughts as well."

The group is expected to return to Cape Girardeau by 12:30 p.m., when a special board meeting will be held to hear a presentation from Ittner representatives.

The district earlier received cost proposals from Sverdrup CRRS, a St. Louis-based company that provides construction management and design services, and Regional Architects Coalition of Cape Girardeau.

After the Ittner presentation the board will hold a study session to consider all of the proposals and determine if it will be ready for an April vote on an $18 million bond issue necessary to fund construction of a high school. The bond issue, which would be a $4 million increase over the original plan, would not require a tax increase.

Steska said the board likely will wait until after a Vision 2000 community forum planned for 7 p.m. Jan. 20 at Blanchard Elementary School to make a final decision regarding the April election.

"At that point we'll be talking about cost estimates, have a presentation laying out everything and just hear what the people think about this," Steska said. "We want them to come out and have every question they can think of, and we'll answer them to the best of our ability."