LEADERS DISCUSS SCHOOLS; MEETING ADDRESSES LONG-RANGE PLANS

The Cape Girardeau Citizens Advisory Commission on Education attempted Wednesday to sort through the school district's finance, facilities and education program needs and begin a cohesive long-range planning effort.

About 50 of the local business and education leaders who serve on the commission's three committees finance, facilities and programs Wednesday held a joint meeting at the Holiday Inn.

The commissioners discussed ways to begin coordinating information gleaned in the various committees and meld the information into a group of recommendations for the school district's long-range planning.

"It's time we need to start sharing our thoughts and know what each other's doing," said Harry Rediger, chairman of the finance committee.

The long-range planning process is expected to be completed by June. It includes creation of a five-year plan and subsequent three-year plan to take the district to the end of the century.

The three committees will meet through April, and in May and June the school board will draft the five-year plan.

Superintendent Neyland Clark said Wednesday that the process is all the more imperative as the district this year faces the prospect of cutting $1.2 million from its budget.

"We're trying to spread cuts across the board so they don't hurt individuals too badly, but when you cut $1.2 million, it hurts," Clark said. "There's nothing you can do to avoid that."

Many of the commissioners said that long-range planning needs to start with the district's curriculum, and that financing and facilities planning will have to be aimed at meeting specific educational program goals.

Sue Balsamo, chairman of the programs committee, said curriculum recommendations will affect facilities and funding.

Some commissioners said they doubted any comprehensive recommendations could be realized without additional funding through some type of local bond issue.

Bob Fox, chairman of the facilities committee, said the district has overwhelming building and capital improvement needs that likely can be fully addressed only with increased local tax revenue.

Fox said the "biggest problem" with regard to facilities is that most of the city's elementary schools are overcrowded. He also said four of the schools were built more than 65 years ago.

"If you're going to be a progressive school district, somewhere down the line you've got to have a plan to replace your older school buildings," he said.

"I think all of our buildings really need to be more conducive to learning. There are many, many major problems that we would like to see corrected."

Fox said that if the district maintains "progressive, modern" facilities, it establishes Cape Girardeau as a progressive community, which helps attract residential and industrial growth and, subsequently, increased tax revenue for the schools.

But Rediger said paying for new facilities would be difficult given the district's current level of funding. He said the financial future of the district is difficult to assess.

"There are a lot of question marks, a lot of unknowns, and a lot of diminishing figures that crop up as we start to look at the finances of the school district," he added.

One of the issues discussed at length was the possibility of redistricting the city's elementary school boundaries, and the potential for a new school in the northwest portion of town where residential growth is greatest.

The prospect of redistricting to better accommodate overcrowded grade schools has long been a contentious one in the city.

Teachers at Wednesday's meeting said May Greene on the city's south side is the only grade school that's not overcrowded, and many parents object to the likelihood that redistricting might put their children in a different school.