PANEL REVIEWS SCHOOL BOUNDARIES

A committee is meeting to determine whether attendance boundaries adopted two years ago for Cape Girardeau elementary schools are still practical.

The 12-member Attendance Area Study Committee convened in November 1996 to develop a plan to redraw boundary lines for the district's six elementary schools. At the same time the committee was organized, the Board of Education approved a 10-year, two-phase master plan for the school district.

The master plan reduces the number of elementary schools in the district to five. Washington and May Greene schools are scheduled to close this summer, and a new elementary school should be completed by June 30 under the plan's first phase. The second phase, which requires passage of a second bond issue by voters, would establish a fifth-sixth-grade center along with a seventh-eighth-grade center and a ninth-12th-grade high school.

The committee originally met to determine which elementary school the children would attend after the new elementary building opened. In a report submitted in January 1997, the committee proposed lines be drawn that created "attendance areas with the greatest diversity possible while remaining sensitive to student safety issues, racial and socioeconomic diversity, building capacities, transportation and cost effectiveness."

The committee had two major goals: No elementary school would be racially identifiable with a minority population of 50 percent or more, and all schools would have a minority population of between 11 and 31 percent to be in near proximity with the city's minority population of 21 percent.

Under the new boundaries, all schools except Alma Schrader will meet these guidelines.

The biggest changes would take place in Jefferson and May Greene attendance areas. An addition has been built at Jefferson that will allow many May Greene students to move to that building. Most of the students currently in the Washington School area would move to the new school.

The committee is reviewing the recommendations from that report to see if the numbers still hold true.

"When we made our recommendation two years ago we knew we would periodically revisit the situation and make whatever necessary adjustments to the attendance areas, both to address issues of building capacity and racial balances in the schools," said committee member Steve Trautwein. "It would make sense in the intervening two years that there would be sufficient shifts in the population to revisit those issues again."

Trautwein said the committee membership includes a principal and parent from each elementary school and assistant superintendent David Giles. A revised recommendation has been developed that reflects some population shifts, he said.

Schools superintendent Dr. Dan Tallent said board members may hear a committee recommendation at the school board meeting Monday at 7 p.m. at Central Junior High School. He is unsure how the building populations may have shifted since the new boundaries were adopted.

"Whether we'll need to move anymore will be contingent upon new populations," Tallent said. "We won't know anything until we hear the committee report."

THE CURRENT PLAN

-- New elementary school -- Projected K-6 enrollment, 483; capacity, 525; minority enrollment, 30 percent.

The attendance area would include most of the current Washington School attendance area, bounded on the north by the school district boundary, on the east by the river, on the south by Morgan Oak and on the west by Sprigg. It would include the portion of the current Franklin attendance area north of New Madrid Street as well as the Oak Hills area, currently part of Alma Schrader's attendance area.

-- Franklin Elementary School -- Projected K-6 enrollment, 344; capacity, 350; minority enrollment, 30 percent.

The attendance area would include the current Franklin attendance area south of New Madrid, extending south to William. A section of the May Greene attendance area bounded by Good Hope on the north, Hanover on the west, the river on the east and extending south to College Street also would be included.

-- Jefferson Elementary School -- Projected K-6 enrollment, 445; capacity, 525; minority enrollment, 29 percent.

The attendance area would include all of its present attendance area and a portion of the May Greene attendance area to the east. The Edgewood area to the west, currently in the Clippard attendance area, is also included as a part of Jefferson.

-- Clippard Elementary School -- Projected K-6 enrollment, 444; capacity, 500; minority enrollment, 14 percent.

The attendance area would no longer include the Edgewood area south of William nor the area east of Kingshighway along Cape Rock Drive to Peach Tree. An added area would be a section northeast of Kingshighway along Lexington to Kent and the area north and west of Kent.

-- Alma Schrader Elementary School -- Projected K-6 enrollment, 515; capacity, 525; minority enrollment, 6 percent.

The attendance area would include its present attendance area except for the area north and west of Kent and the Oak Hills area. An added section would be that area that formerly was a part of Clippard, which lies along Cape Rock Drive from Kingshighway to Peach Tree.