MORE SCHOOL ESTIMATES TO BE GIVEN

Two St. Louis-based companies met with Cape Girardeau school officials Tuesday and expressed an interest in developing cost estimates to build a new high school.

Representatives from Glenn Construction Co. and Wm. B. Ittner Inc. will submit cost and design estimates to the school board next week explaining what they believe it would cost the district to build a functional high school to hold about 1,600 students.

A third company also was invited to submit a cost estimate.

Superintendent Dr. Dan Steska and school board members Bob Blank, David Goncher and Sharon Mueller Tuesday toured four high schools in the St. Louis area that were built or managed by the two companies to consider cost and design options for the Cape Girardeau high school. The school would be built near Interstate 55 on land adjoining the new vocational career center under construction.

"I'm very excited about what I saw today," said Steska. "I think we got a good feel for some design options that we will be able to use."

Ittner, an architectural design firm that concentrates on school construction, is working with Southeast Missouri State University officials on the polytechnic building. Glenn Construction, which provides mostly program management services, also is working for the university on its higher-education center under construction in Sikeston.

The district earlier received cost proposals from Sverdrup CRRS, a St. Louis-based company that provides construction management and design services, and Regional Architects Coalition of Cape Girardeau.

The school board plans to meet for a study session Jan. 8 to consider all of the proposals and determine if it will be ready for an April vote on an $18 million bond issue necessary to fund construction of a new high school. Steska said the bond issue, which would be a $4 million increase over the original plan, would not require a tax increase.

School officials have been in contact with investment brokers who said "we could do that amount without raising taxes," he said.

All of the schools toured Tuesday were built and furnished for about $25 million and were similar in size to what the Cape Girardeau school board is considering. Each building had different features, including a combined cafeteria and auditorium , competition swimming pools and gymnasiums, and single- or multilevel designs.

In each case, either a project manager or construction manager was hired by the school districts to keep costs down and ensure timely completion of the buildings.

Three of the high schools were in Rockwood School District in west St. Louis County. Glenn Construction served as project manager and monitored design and cost for all of the buildings. One of the schools, Rockwood Summit High School, also was designed by Ittner.

The fourth school, Triad High School in Troy, Ill., opened in the fall with an enrollment of about 1,100. The building, designed and built by Ittner, is wired for future technology and will contain up to 2,000 students.