SCHOOL BOARD READY TO DECIDE OCTOBER BALLOT

Cape Girardeau's Board of Education Monday must decide if it will ask voters to approve a tax increase in October.

If board members decide yes, they also must determine what, exactly, they will ask voters to approve.

The school board meets Monday at 5 p.m. at 61 N. Clark. The deadline to place a measure on the October ballot is Tuesday.

Board members have been quizzing friends, business and community leaders on what the best answer is for a compromise ballot measure.

In April, voters turned down a 99-cent tax increase that would have funded construction of a middle school, an elementary school, an addition to Jefferson Elementary school and other improvements throughout the district.

"I think what I heard and what board members heard from feedback from business leaders and community leaders and the media is that in a Clinton economy and a Carnahan economy, we asked for too much, too fast," said Superintendent Neyland Clark.

"My feeling is that we will have something on the ballot in October or November. The issue is a timeline issue. If we are going in October, we have got to go to the clerk on the 10th.

"There has been a lot of dialogue, what I call cracker-barrel discussions, among board members over the November ballot and the gaming issue," Clark said.

Cape Girardeau voters will reconsider riverboat gambling in November. The school board doesn't want to be linked with or pitted against riverboat gambling, he said.

"We want to pursue our issue in a legitimate and professional manner."

Putting a building measure on the October or November ballot could mean additional state money to the district.

"Part of the urgency is the state financial support to school buildings that is available," Clark said.

"And right now, the question is still what method do we use to finance schools," Clark said. "There have been a lot of questions regarding lease purchase."

On Friday, board members and administrators met in small groups with their attorney, bond counsel and auditor to learn more about both.

Basically under a lease purchase plan, the school board would establish a separate entity to purchase the building. The school district would lease the building until such time as it had paid back the special entity. After that, the district would own the building outright.

Clark explained that often the purchasing group is actually comprised of school board members.

In the past, Missouri schools have not used this method of financing buildings, but Clark said it is used in many other states.

At the board's Jefferson City planning meeting, the Missouri education department's director of school finance told board members that the state's new school funding and reform law includes a loophole that allows school districts to earn additional state money through the foundation formula with a lease-purchase plan.

The higher a local tax levy, the more state money the district receives under the new funding formula. As written now, tax levies approved for buildings are included.

But Clark said he learned last week that draft legislation to close that loophole has already been written. He believes districts that approve a lease-purchase building this fall will be grandfathered in and will be able to collect the windfall.

Board members and administrators have been kicking around a tax increase of 52 cents, about half what was requested in April.

That 52 cents, Clark said, should generate enough money to build a new middle school, and do some renovations to other buildings.

At the planning meeting in Jefferson City, some board members also suggested closing Washington and May Greene schools and utilizing the L.J. Schultz building as a temporary elementary building.

In the future, maybe 1994, Clark said the district would look at asking voters for another increase to build an elementary school.

"We will slow it down and see what happens.

"The board will mull all this information over this weekend," Clark said. All the pieces should come together at Monday's meeting.

Also on the agenda is a discussion of a public school foundation to channel donations to the school district, like the recent gift of a new gymnasium floor.