KELLY, CAPE SCHOOLS SEEK BOND APPROVAL

Cape Girardeau and Kelly school districts have little in common in terms of size and comparison. However, both districts have one similar goal this year: Each wants voter approval of a bond issue to finance major capital projects.

Bond issues allow school districts to incur indebtedness to finance capital projects. The need for the money may be diverse, from a desire to buy buses to renovation efforts to a need for a new school.

Cape Girardeau school officials will decide before the end of the month whether to ask voters in April to approve an $18 million bond issue to complete construction projects included in a long-range plan created five years ago.

If approved, money from the measure would be used to build a new high school and complete renovations to Central High School. After the projects are completed, the district would reconfigure grade levels and close Louis J. Schultz School.

Voters approved the first half of the plan, a $14 million bond issue, in 1997. Money raised through that measure enabled the district to build Barbara Blanchard Elementary School, renovate remaining elementary schools and Central Junior High, and build a new vocational career center.

Superintendent Dan Steska said changes in technology, security and building maintenance made the bond issue necessary.

"I think, structurally, many of the schools can still handle the students," he said. "I think, technologically, they're getting further behind because of the extreme speed of technology change. And other factors, like the kinds of lighting used in buildings, heating and cooling systems, and security systems, also have changed."

For example, heating systems in the older schools are not economical or efficient, Steska said, and many of the older buildings included features that were popular in the past but are not very efficient today.

"May Greene building is either off or on as far as the heat is concerned," Steska said. "There's no energy management system to phase the usage of energy or control the peaks and valleys of heat distribution. None of the buildings built years ago were built for ease of supervision where you could see long distances throughout the buildings."

He said, "As needs have changed in education and society, facilities are changing as well."

Voters generally show more support of bond issues when the economy is strong and when the plans are well-defined.

Steska thinks voters understand the cyclical nature of school construction.

Many schools were built during the 1930s President Roosevelt's Works Projects Administration program, and many others were built in the 1950s during the Baby Boom period after World War II, he said.

The late 1990s brought on the newest building boom, and many school districts are demonstrating similar needs, he said.

"It's a cycle that occurs in building programs," said Steska. "With the rising cost of construction projects in a thriving economy, the delay to construct buildings becomes more and more expensive."

Kelly Superintendent Don Abner said his district needs to make room for the many students enrolled. Despite expansion efforts in the past, the district has not built a new building in more than 40 years, and there is no where else to go.

"Our problem is the need," he said. "We simply need more space."

Abner described crowded hallways and a cafeteria that was built for about half the students enrolled. There are six mobile units that surround the elementary and high schools, including one large unit that blocks the elementary school from passers-by.

For Kelly schools, a bond issue is the only option for renovation or building projects. Abner said the district's capital projects fund used to purchase equipment and finance some construction projects is not big enough to accommodate the district's need. And state mandates restrict transfers to the fund from the district's general operating funds.

"There is no real other funding mechanism," said Abner. "The transfer problem is the state has dictated exactly what can and cannot be spent. It's very frustrating for districts that might have some balances but aren't able to use them."

Despite what Abner calls "an obvious need" for a bond issue, district voters have rejected four bond issues in the past two years, and without the voter-approved measures, school officials have little choice but to work with what they have, he said.