MEETINGS SET ON LUTHERAN SCHOOL

Julie Muhlfeld wants her son to have the best Christian education she and her husband, Joseph, can afford. That's why she drove back and forth from Sikeston for almost four months so that 6-year-old Joel could attend Trinity Lutheran School in Cape Girardeau.

Many parents have said they would be willing to do the same to send their children to a proposed Lutheran high school in Southeast Missouri.

A series of public meetings about Saxony Lutheran High School are planned throughout the month. The first of five meetings will be at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Concordia Lutheran Church in Sikeston.

Although he is just a first-grader now, Joel Muhlfeld could be one of the many students to graduate from Saxony Lutheran High School.

Children need a good Christian education with all that is going on in the world, Muhlfeld said. "You always try to do the best for your kids," she said. "The least I can do is get him through 12 grades of a good, Christian education."

Muhlfeld looked into Catholic schools in Sikeston but found they had waiting lists for enrollment. As a member of a Lutheran church and a former Lutheran elementary school student herself, Muhlfeld then began looking into other options through her church.

But she found that tuition costs nearly $3,000 a year would be too high. Eventually, she moved her membership to Trinity Lutheran Church, which offers subsidized tuition to its members. In November the family moved to Cape Girardeau, and Muhlfeld commutes to her job with United Parcel Service in Sikeston.

"Knowing there was talk of a high school" helped Muhlfeld make the decision and the membership move, she said. "Now I know we don't have to stop at the eighth grade."

During its first year Saxony High School likely would offer only a freshman and sophomore class, adding more classes as the student body expands.

A site for a building has not been acquired but is in negotiations. The school is poised to sign a contract for a land purchase in Cape Girardeau County by mid-month. However, until the deal is complete no details are being released.

The school is to open this fall in classroom space at St. Andrew Lutheran Church.

The public meetings, organized in town-hall fashion, will allow people to ask questions about the school, how it will be run and what the costs will be.

No one knows exactly how many people to expect or what sort of questions will be asked since it is the first meeting, said the Rev. David Dissen, spokesman for the school. "When you have people at an open meeting you never know what comes up."

Dissen expects the questions to be related to the search for a location, curriculum offerings, class sizes and staff needs.

Members of the school's board of regents and board of directors and the interim administrator will attend the meetings. Dissen also plans to attend as many meetings as he can.

More than 20 area Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod congregations joined in spring 1999 to form the Saxony Lutheran High School Association, which serves as the founding body for the school.

Meetings Schedule

* Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at Concordia Lutheran Church in Sikeston.

* Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Perryville.

* Jan. 16 at 3 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg.

* Jan. 19 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Jackson.

* Jan. 20 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau.