JACKSON SCHOOL DISTRICT WON'T GET NEW BUSES BY THE START OF SCHOOL

JACKSON - Five new school buses for the Jackson School District won't arrive before the start of school later this month as expected.

Superintendent Wayne Maupin told school board members Tuesday delivery of the buses was delayed until later this year because of a fire at the bus manufacturing plant.

Maupin said the district will continue to use four buses that will be traded for the new buses when they arrive. The district won't trade for all five new buses to ensure an extra bus should bus routes be added this fall due to increased school enrollment.

Maupin also announced space shuttle astronaut Linda Godwin, a Jackson-area native, will be the guest speaker at the opening session of the district's two-day school-opening workshop. Godwin will speak to the teachers at 9 a.m. Aug. 22.

In other business Tuesday, the school board learned that students won't have to pay more for school lunches this year.

The board approved school cafeteria lunch prices of $1.20 for elementary and secondary lunches and $1.25 for adults. A weekly five-day meal ticket for elementary and secondary students is $6, and the cost for a monthly, 20-day meal ticket is $24. The board set the price for a half-pint of milk at .20 cents. All the prices remain unchanged from last year.

The school district also received a favorable evaluation from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

"It's the cleanest notice we've ever gotten," said Maupin. "There were no advisements in the evaluation for the 1993-94 school year. Under the dual rating system, the district is again rated at triple-A."

In another matter, Maupin said officials from Lee-Rowan Co. in St. Louis have told the school district that no more than 25 families are expected to move to Jackson as a result of the closing of the company's St. Louis plant.

Maupin and other school officials had expressed concern that a large influx of families with young children moving to Jackson would add to already overcrowded conditions in the elementary and junior high school grades.

Maupin also said that when school begins Aug. 24, about 90 percent of the district's students will be in air conditioned classroom as a result of capital improvements made over the summer.

School board members also are expected to renew discussion of adding a girls soccer team, maybe as soon as next year.

Maupin said the recent addition of a girls soccer team program in the Cape Girardeau school district would provide a local team to play, in addition to girls soccer teams in Carbondale, Festus, and other schools in the St. Louis metro south area. The issue may come up at a board meeting later this fall.