EDUCATION: SCHOOL HAS SEVERAL PLANS FOR EXPANSION

JACKSON, Mo. -- The Jackson Board of Education doesn't have just one plan for addressing building needs at the district's junior high and high school campuses: It has four.

However, only one of the plans -- largely developed by architect John Dudley with input from district staff in 1999 -- includes a cost estimate anywhere near the $6 million bond issue voters will be asked to approve to fund an addition to R.O. Hawkins Junior High School when they go to the polls Nov. 7.

The issue, which would require a 10-cent tax levy hike, would fund construction of a 20-classroom addition at the junior high. A four-sevenths majority, just over 57 percent, is required for passage of the measure.

Should the bond issue fail, school officials said it is unlikely the School Board will make a fourth attempt at passage next year.

The School Board has come under fire this year for an apparent lack of planning to address current and future building needs as it tries to contain a 13-year enrollment growth trend.

Voters who have been critical of the School Board in recent months said the board is short-sighted, and is not considering expansion needs at other secondary buildings.

"There's a sense among some people that the approach has been piecemeal and there's no organized plan," said Jackson resident Fritz Sander. "It was my feeling that we should work hard to stay ahead of the growth curve to the extent you can do that. Trouble is, it costs money to do that, and it also requires a strong board that's cohesive and knows where they're going."

Bad estimates

School officials maintain Dudley's estimate is a well-developed document that clearly plans for improvements to meet space constraints at the junior high.

But before failed elections in April and August, the School Board also referred to recommendations made by a facilities review committee in 1995 as a definite plan for addressing building needs in the future.

The committee's plan, as well as a state-mandated five-year plan created in 1998 and revised earlier this year, all grossly underestimate the costs for bringing the junior high up to par. The plans carry cost estimates of $1 million to $1.5 million for improvements to the junior high school, well beneath Dudley's cost estimate.

And only the latest revision to the state-mandated Comprehensive School Improvement Plan, or CSIP, suggests the district should acquire land around the landlocked high school campus to help with future expansion.

Jackson schools Superintendent Dr. Ron Anderson said he had no clear explanation for the disparities in the plans, two of which were created before his arrival.

"I wasn't here when the first one was done, and I was not directly working on the latest one, even though my name is plugged in there," he said.

One possible reason for the disparities could be the earlier plans considered much smaller projects than the one developed by Dudley, Anderson said. Also, estimates included for the junior high project in both CSIP plans were likely "guesstimates" plugged in by a staff person without any real thought for project costs.

"My best guess is someone just pulled up a figure without a lot of substantiation," he said. "I'm not saying they were bad plans, but I doubt if they were data rich," Anderson said. "Maybe it needs to be. You do have a definite plan now. What it needs is what we're recommending."

High school development

In regard to land acquisition around the high school campus, School Board President Dr. T. Wayne Lewis said that has been a consideration for most of his 16 years on the board.

"We started talking about it 12 or 13 years ago," Lewis said. "With the fact we have a high school and we're going to be committed to it, we literally need every piece of land over there."

Lewis said the community affirmed its commitment to the high school campus, which consists of about nine separate buildings, with the approval of funding for the Math and Science Building in 1996. He said renovations throughout the campus will be necessary and the future, but the renovations will cost the community much less than the price to purchase land and build a new school elsewhere.

"Being able to add on and take care of those buildings is much less expensive than building something new," said Lewis. "Right now we're having enough trouble passing a 10-cent hike. To try to get enough passed for a new high school would be real trouble."

Anderson said in-depth planning for the high school campus will begin following general elections. Nothing has gotten under way sooner because the district is trying "to focus its attention" on getting the bond issue passed.

"We'll go through a lot of different ways of getting people engaged in probably a 10-12 month discussion," said Anderson. "That study will probably be expanded enough to do a confirmation of all of our buildings."

Getting voter support

Prior to this year, the Jackson Board of Education had no problems getting voters to approve funding for special projects.

But of late, residents have been very vocal in their complaints about everything from poor spending decisions to inequitable disciplinary practices to nepotism in hiring practices. They have taken their ire out at the polls by rejecting additional funding the district claims it needs to maintain the excellence school patrons have come to expect.

"Unfortunately, in the meantime it's the students who are getting short-changed," Anderson said.

School officials have tried to become more voter-friendly in recent months by opening its doors and ears and inviting residents in. Weekly tours of the junior high and other buildings have been directed by staff and students to give residents a first-hand look at the district's needs, and several public meetings have been held to allow residents to voice their opinions on the district's finance and growth patterns.

A committee supporting the current bond issue also initiated letter-writting campaigns to local newspapers in an effort to project a more positive image of the district.

"We just see little pockets of things continue to come up," Lewis said. "It's an uninformed public so many times that, if they could see children in those situations, we really think they'll want to change it."

Anderson and Lewis said the district has laid a foundation for planning for building improvements with numerous plans over the past five years. Those plans will continue to be fine-tuned in the future to ensure Jackson schools continue to provide a standard of excellence residents have come to expect, they said.

"I think if you look at district indicators of results, the proof is in the pudding," Anderson said. "We just need to communicate that to the people."