PRICE TAG FOR NEW HIGH SCHOOL COSTLY

PERRYVILLE -- Perry County School District 32 board members will meet Wednesday night to reconsider their options after being told their plans for a new high school and other district improvements cost too much.

Members of the district's long-range planning committee told the school board last week that building the new high school was probably the best way to meet the district's space needs, but the price tag is too high, said Dennis Martin, school board president.

So the board will go back to the drawing board and see what other steps can be taken, Martin said.

Meeting all of the district's immediate needs -- higher teacher salaries, additional teaching and administrative staff, new textbooks and other supplies and the new $14 million high school -- would require an estimated $1.53 levy increase, bringing the total district levy to $4.21 per $100 assessed valuation.

The package is "simply not affordable," Martin said.

"It was the consensus of the group that that was too much of an increase to expect the community to support and we should not ask the community to support that much of an increase," he said.

So on Wednesday night, the school board will meet again with architect David Kromm and look at construction options and other needs, he said. The meeting will be held at 7:30 at the high school library.

Dr. Rex Miller, superintendent of schools, said the board will "try to work on ways that we can cut the costs to something that we can afford but also provide for the classroom space that the students need."

The board had originally suggested building a new high school and reorganizing kindergarten through eighth-grade enrollment through the district's existing buildings -- the early childhood center, the elementary school, middle school and current high school.

"We've got to find some other direction," Martin said. "I don't know what it's going to be."

The school district is facing a number of issues.

Enrollment is increasing in the primary and preschool grades, and those children will eventually pass into the secondary schools.

In addition, the district needs to make its salary schedule more competitive and add staff.

And the middle school needs a new roof, which will create a "significant" expense, Martin said.

In the meantime, state and federal budget cuts have district officials anticipating a $300,000 cut in funding.

"It's hard to plan when you don't know what your state and federal support is going to be," Martin said.

The board of education had considered adding classrooms at individual attendance centers, he said, but that is "a piecemeal approach."

And just adding extra classrooms creates other problems, Martin said, because the buildings' support facilities -- gyms, libraries, cafeterias and counselors' offices -- won't support the additional students housed in the new classrooms.

At Wednesday's meeting, school board members will try to come up with other options to meet the district's needs for additional space and money.

Miller said the board is not yet ready to propose a ballot measure, but the district has until May to put a proposal on the August ballot. District residents might be worried about being hit twice with tax increases.

The Perryville Board of Aldermen are reviewing plans to upgrade the city's aging water plant. City Administrator Craig Lindsley said aldermen could put a tax increase of some type to fund the project on the ballot as early as November.