MIDDLE SCHOOL IDEA PUT ASIDE

The Cape Girardeau Board of Education hopes to replace old buildings with new elementary classrooms, setting aside for now the idea of a middle school.

The board met in a work session Monday to again look at the direction the district should take.

"I think the issue that stands the best chance of passing is solving our elementary overcrowding, leaving the grade configuration as it is now -- K through 6," said Board President John Campbell.

At the end of the meeting, board members asked administrators to put together figures on how both Washington and May Greene can be closed while at the same time addressing overcrowding at the elementary level. And, if possible, the board would like to eliminate eight mobile classrooms now in use.

The board discussed the possibility of building a new elementary school and an addition to Jefferson Elementary.

"Whatever it takes to get it done," said Campbell.

Initially, administrator Richard Bollwerk told the board that a new 500-pupil elementary school plus an addition to Jefferson School would not allow the district to house the students and programs from both May Greene and Washington and eliminate mobile classrooms.

Ruopp said, "A 500-student school may be ideal, but maybe we need a 600-student elementary school. The people of Cape Girardeau have told us they are not interested in the ideal."

The board meets in regular session Feb. 14 and is planning a third study session on this topic.

In April and again October of last year, voters turned down tax increases that would have funded new buildings and other facility upgrades.

Board member Lyle Davis said, "They are not going to give us $25 million to do something that should have been done over the past 30 years. What can we do -- piecemeal -- to attain our long-range goals."

Campbell said, "It is obvious we have some dire needs facility-wise. We have some aging, ancient buildings."

"It is also apparent that we have a limit our constituents will vote for," he said. "Hopefully that limit is not zero."

While the board directed the administration to pursue a plan for elementary classrooms, board members expressed hope that a new middle school -- either a sixth-, seventh-, eighth-grade center or a seventh- and eighth-grade center -- would be part of the district's long range plan.

"I'm still at a crossroads on a seventh through eighth middle school," said board member Ed Thompson. "I think it's what's best educationally, but I don't think it will pass."

Campbell agreed. "There is a segment of our population that just doesn't understand the middle school," Campbell said.

Davis suggested that a "massive education program" is needed to inform district patrons about middle schools. Davis added he had heard "an awful lot of frankly ignorant input from the community, but some very good input as well.

"A large number of people think we are spending time fixing something that doesn't need to be fixed," said Davis.

Ruopp said, "We found out what our needs are through what we felt was a pretty extensive and pretty revealing process -- Project Partnership. Then we conducted our campaigns and failed. We held the public forums and found that people had completely different ideas about our needs. They had assessed our needs somewhat differently.

"How do we educate those who may not necessarily want to hear what we have to say. We are not recommending something on a whim," Ruopp said.

At the meeting, Bollwerk also talked about the Magnet Schools Assistance Program. For the fiscal year 1993, appropriation was $107.5 million.

Programs must address minority isolation as well as providing an academic program. Usually, magnet schools offer specialized or intensive instruction designed to draw students to that school. The money is provided through competitive grants from the federal government.