NEW SCHOOL BARGAINING WITH LUTHERAN CHURCH

Saxony Lutheran High School is in the midst of negotiations with an area Lutheran church for a temporary location for the school.

If all the documents get prepared and signed as planned, Saxony Lutheran High School should open its doors at St. Andrew Lutheran Church, at the corner of Cape Rock Drive and North Kingshighway.

Jerry Deardorff, interim administrator, will open an office in St. Andrew Church soon. Plans are to open the school in fall 2000.

"I keep reminding people that time is fleeting," said the Rev. David Dissen, pastor Emeritus of Trinity Lutheran Church. He is press secretary for the school.

As the opening date moves closer, board members are looking to permanent sites for a school building that would serve all of Southeast Missouri -- from Fredericktown and Farmington to Sikeston and Poplar Bluff.

The number of inquiries about the school continues to grow, Dissen said.

Representatives from more than 15 area Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod churches are part of the board. The board members and founding churches will sign a constitution for the school at a special praise and celebration service next month.

The service is planned for Nov. 14 at 2:30 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church, where the board of regents has been holding its monthly meetings. Area churches and people interested in learning more about the school are invited to attend the service, which will include tours of St. Andrew Church.

"We want people to know that Saxony Lutheran is getting off the ground," Dissen said.

Creating a Lutheran high school in Southeast Missouri will be an historic event, he said. Lutheran roots run deep in the area, particularly in the Altenburg and Frohna communities, where much of the early founding of the Lutheran-Church Missouri Synod took place.

The synod has been around for 150 years and just now a Lutheran high school is forming in the region, Dissen said.

Saxony Lutheran High School will be a college-preparatory school that might not have all the "bells and whistles" of other schools in the area that have been running for 50 or more years, Dissen said. But it will teach the basics and will be in agreement with the doctrine and teachings of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. The school has already applied for Recognized Service Organization status, which would allow it to call teachers and staff and offer them the same health benefits and retirement packages as other synod staff and church leaders.