MEETINGS TO FOCUS ON DISTRICT REDRAWING

Redistricting meetings will be held tonight at each Cape Girardeau elementary school to gather suggestions from parents on how best to redraw elementary school boundary lines or reorganize elementary grades.

The meetings all begin at 7 p.m. and should last until 8:30. Principals at each school will conduct the meetings, which will all follow the same format.

Principals will review information on enrollment at each school, minority enrollment at each school and previous ballot measures.

A district-wide committee is looking at redistricting in an effort to equalize enrollments at the city's six elementary schools and to change the minority enrollment at some schools.

Dr. Bob Fox, a school board member and co-chairman of the committee, said the meetings are being held to encourage input from parents.

"We thought more parents would come out and meet at their individual schools," he said. "I would imagine a lot of this will be informative for parents also. Each principal will update parents on where we've been and the data that we've looked at."

Committee members hope to generate a long list of possibilities.

Board member Steve Wright, who is co-chairman of the committee, said, "We want to stress that nothing has been decided, and we do want parents' input and teachers' input."

Principals from each school will compile a list from their meetings and present the ideas to the committee at its next meeting March 14.

Fox said the committee eventually will pare down the list to three or four possibilities to investigate in depth.

In addition to Fox and Wright, committee members include the six elementary school principals and a parent from each elementary school.

The committee also is scheduled to meet April 5 and 15. Committee meetings are held at 7 p.m. at the L.J. Schultz library.