GROUP TESTS WATERS FOR NEW COLLEGE IN SIKESTON

SIKESTON -- The business community and school officials recently shifted gears from talk to action on a junior college for Sikeston by asking area school boards for support.

Dr. Sam Harbin, outgoing executive director of the Sikeston Area Chamber of Commerce, said people started talking about a junior college in 1980, but efforts to get one in the Bootheel were unsuccessful.

Later, through cooperation with Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff and Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, Sikeston schools began offering two associate degrees -- one in general education and the other in applied computer science. Through another program, high school students earn college credit in various courses.

Now community leaders are eying a separate, Sikeston-based junior college that would attract students from surrounding counties. Harbin, a former superintendent of Sikeston public schools, said the chamber members considered two approaches: simply going to the state Coordinating Board of Higher Education and asking, or building existing programs and making a strong case.

The second philosophy won out, Harbin said.

"It's way too early to say whether we will be successful," he said. "We're three or four years away from even applying. It's going to be an uphill battle."

Dr. Robert Buchanan, superintendent of Sikeston schools, recently mailed letters to several area superintendents, encouraging them to send their graduates to Sikeston's existing associate degree programs. There now are 165 students enrolled in the various classes.

Buchanan, too, said getting financial support for a junior college or two-year technical college is challenging.

"If they want a community technical college, Sikeston would be the place for it," he said. "It doesn't have a place for our students or Cape students to go. The funding would have to be changed. Property taxes won't handle that."

The East Prairie Board of Education already acted on Buchanan's letter, voting down a request to support a junior college. Superintendent Jack MacIntosh said the board didn't oppose the idea of a junior college but feared financial support would be too much of a burden on district taxpayers.

"We would like to see it, and it would help our kids in the long run because they wouldn't have to travel as far," MacIntosh said. "But we will probably have to run our own tax levy before the voters, and we don't want their minds on this one; we have local needs."

Dr. Bill Bacchus, superintendent of Charleston public schools, and Dr. Mike Barnes, superintendent of New Madrid County schools, said their boards haven't had time to act on the letter.

Barnes said his initial reaction is that a junior college in Sikeston would be good for the area.

Steve McPheeters, incoming executive director of the Sikeston Area Chamber of Commerce, said it was important to the future of the area for business leaders and school officials to get behind the idea of a two-year college.

"They are the wave of the future because of rising college costs and more people going back to school," he said. "Sometimes we hear people say there aren't any jobs. But there are; you have to have the education to get the jobs."

In addition to promoting the idea of the junior college in 1996, McPheeters said, the chamber will help Sikeston's business community reach out to people looking for jobs or seeking training for better jobs.