REDISTRICTING COMMITTEE TO MEET

Kim Hagler wants her children to attend Franklin Elementary School. Pat Hodge feels just as strongly that her children should attend Jefferson Elementary School.

Therein lies one problem faced by a Cape Girardeau School District committee looking at how to redraw boundary lines for the city's elementary schools.

Many parents bought homes so their children could attend particular elementary schools, and they have forged a fierce loyalty to their neighborhood schools.

Hagler and Hodge are two members of the committee. They agree that making changes won't be easy.

The committee will meet for a second time Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the board office, 61 N. Clark.

School officials say the elementary school boundaries must be redrawn because of overcrowding in schools in growing areas of the city. The committee also will examine better ways to balance elementary school enrollment racially.

School board members Steve Wright and Bob Fox are chairmen of the committee.

Wright said he's not surprised that among the many people who have called him about the issue, opinions are mixed.

"A lot seem to think it's cut and dried. It's not," he said.

Wright invited people with suggestions to write or call committee members.

On Tuesday, city planner Kent Bratton will talk with committee members about the Mississippi River bridge route and its impact on school boundaries. The new route could isolate May Greene School on the city's south side.

"We have no idea at this point what the committee will come up with," Wright said. "It may be the committee comes back with a bond issue."

Three times the school board asked voters for money to build a new school. Each time voters said no.

"I've heard people say the only reason we're doing this is so people will get upset and pass a bond issue," said Wright. "That's not the case. This is something that should have been done years ago."

The district lines were redrawn 30 years ago.

Kim Hagler, the Franklin parent serving on the committee, predicts that no one will be happy, regardless of the solution.

"I haven't heard a lot of feedback from Franklin parents," she said. "Everybody is kind of sitting back and waiting to see what happens."

Hagler said she chose her home so her children would attend Franklin. "The teachers are just the best," she said. "It's a great school. No one wants to leave."

Pat Hodge, the Jefferson parent on the committee, echoed Hagler's opinion while lauding Jefferson.

"It's the teachers who make the school," she said. "What I hear from parents is `I moved into this school district and that's where my kids are going to school.'"

She said parents in the Jefferson district don't favor an idea considered by the committee to pair Jefferson with May Greene. Younger students would attend Jefferson and older students May Greene.

Stafford Moore, the parent representing May Greene School, said economic factors play a big role in the reason people live in the May Greene district.

But, he said, they are equally proud of the school as parents in other elementary districts.

"May Greene has been stereotyped as a place with violence and where academic goals aren't very high," Moore said. "That has changed over the past two years."

He said May Greene parents aren't interested in busing their children to other parts of the town.

"But something definitely has to be done," he said.

Ferrell Ervin, the parent representing Alma Schrader, said parents he has talked with wonder about the rationale for redistricting now.

"There is a real need for the committee and school board to be able to show why the redistricting is necessary, not just for numbers, but necessary for educational reasons," Ervin said.

Ervin expects a large contingent of Alma Schrader parents at Tuesday's meeting.

"I would think the school board would want to make sure they have a chance to express their opinions," he said.