PERRYVILLE CONSIDERS GROWTH; SCHOOL EYES FIRM FOR BUILDING PLAN

PERRYVILLE -- A St. Louis-based architectural firm has been tentatively hired by the Perry County School District to devise a $2 million, 10-year building plan for the district.

Orville Schaefer, president of the Board of Education, said the board and the district's long-range planning committee will determine in the coming weeks if they will hire the firm, Kromm Rikimaru and Johansen, Architects, Engineers and Planners.

"We plan on making visits to a couple of school districts where the firm has done some work," Schaefer said.

The firm, which is also called KRJ, was picked from a field of 18 firms. The board for narrowed the field to six, five from St. Louis and one from Springfield, Mo.

The final decision was made at a school board meeting last week.

The idea for the master plan is to redesign the Perry County campus, evaluate present school buildings and plan new ones that will meet the needs of the district, said Superintendent Ronald Fitch.

Schaefer said the board will likely make a final decision about whether or not to hire the firm by Aug. 28.

"I think the campus could use some facility coordination," Schaefer said. "We need to look at the problems we have now and what we may have in the future."

The district's class size has been growing steadily over the past few years, Fitch said, adding that the teacher-to-pupil ratio is especially high in the lower elementary grades.

The schools often have to move students from one building to another for classes, he said, something the district would like to avoid.

Schaefer said funding for any new buildings in the district will have to come from a rise in the district tax levy. That could possibly happen in April of 1992 or 1993, he said.

He estimated the cost of new buildings and other changes to go along with the master plan to be at least $2 million. That cost would be spread out over a period of at least 10 years.

The current levy is 17 cents, he said, but will drop to zero in three years.

"(The district) will be debt free in 1994, so we will be in an ideal position to do something like this," he said. Bonds will likely be sold to finance any building projects, he said.

"I think we're looking at some exciting things in education for the district down the road," Schaefer said. "We're going to make some real progress."