Running out of space

JACKSON, Mo. -- By the end of the year, the Jackson Board of Education could have an idea of whether it is going to renovate its current high school campus, add on to some of the school's seven buildings or ask taxpayers to pay for a new campus somewhere else.

Superintendent Ron Anderson said all of those possibilities, plus the possibility of building a new elementary school and revamping the district curriculum, are being studied by independent educational consultant Jerry McCall of Lincoln, Neb.

McCall, who is being paid about $50,000 for his work, has met with teachers and community members and examined programs and buildings since the end of the spring 2001 semester.

The information he has collected will be compiled into a report and presented to the board within the next few months, Anderson said.

The report will include maintenance plans for every building in the district, information about future growth and expansion of the elementary and middle school buildings, several options for growth and expansion on the high school campus and a variety of options for improving and updating the curriculum.

'Really beyond capacity'

Anderson said the study needed to be done because the district's enrollment has been steadily increasing each year and the buildings, especially the high school, are running out of space.

"The concern right now is the current facilities at the high school," Anderson said. "In many cases we are really beyond capacity. We have a very active student body, which is great, but we need to better accommodate those students. We need to get the facilities to match the kind of programming we offer."

Seventeen-year-old Carrie Golden, who will be a senior in the fall, agrees.

Golden, who is actively involved in the school band, said when the band has concerts they have to be held in the old gym, which can get stuffy and hot.

"We definitely need a place to have music and band concerts that's air-conditioned," she said.

Anderson said construction of South Elementary and an addition to North Elementary in 1998 helped ease some of the congestion at the elementary levels and the additions to R.O. Hawkins Junior High, which are taking place right now, should do the same for the eighth and ninth grades. He said the addition of the math and science building at the high school in 1998 helped, but more additions to the high school and the middle school will be needed within the next few years.

Gives only options

Anderson said the report will not include a recommendation from McCall of what he thinks the district should do. Instead, a number of different scenarios will be given for each of the areas in the study.

"One of the options might be to build a new high school," Anderson said. "Then it would say if we decided to build a new school, here is what it would cost and here is where you could do it."

Anderson said there would also be a list of three or four other options, such as adding on to an existing building or buildings, demolishing one building and constructing a bigger one on that lot or constructing a new building in an open space that might currently be parking.

"It will probably be a lot of mix and match," he said. "We wanted the report to be flexible because we wanted to make sure all of the possible needs are being met."

Martha Golden, Carrie's mother, said the idea of a new high school is nice, but it's not one people in the community would likely want to support.

"A lot of people here are pretty traditional about where their kids go to school," she said.

Didn't look at neighbors

The option of building a new high school campus was not spurred by the construction of new high schools in neighboring Cape Girardeau and Notre Dame districts, Anderson said.

"What we're doing is looking at the needs of the Jackson R-II School District," Anderson said. "We haven't studied what our neighbors have done. They both had one building. When you have a multi-number building campus like we do, then you've got more pieces to work through."

Graduates of Jackson High School and current students agree that having several older buildings isn't as bad as people might think.

"I like it the way it was because I got to get used to going to different buildings for class," said 20-year-old Matt Diebold, a 2000 graduate of JHS. "It helped me prepare for college."

Andrea Soemo, 16, will be a junior at JHS in the fall and said she likes the campus as it is.

"It's pretty spread out, but it's not that hard to get from one building to another," she said. "It's not too crowded now, but I think it will get worse as time goes on. The class coming in is pretty big."

Anderson said when the report is finished the board may discuss some of the information, about curriculum and space, with specific groups like the clubs and organizations before making any decisions.

"We need to be thorough in looking to the future and covering all of the bases of interest," he said. "It's hard to say when a decision will be made, but I have a pretty good idea were going to be working on this through the fall."

hkronmueller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 128