SCHOOL BOARD: TRANSPORTATION, PLANNING ON AGENDA

The Cape Girardeau Board of Education is scheduled to discuss student transportation, naming of school facilities and long-range planning at its meeting Monday.

The board will meet at 4:30 p.m.

Superintendent Neyland Clark said board members will receive a progress report on student transportation.

Reduction of school bus costs was part of the district's $1.2 million budget cut package. The board approved extending the distance students must live from school to be eligible to ride the school bus.

Since that time, the district has been collecting data concerning transportation. A computer consultant, George Baker, has been working with the district to computerize its transportation records and to analyze costs.

"Mr. Baker is going to be here to show in public the work we have been doing," Clark said. "We are also going to present information about enrollment and costs and where we will go from here."

Clark said representatives from Ryder Student Transportation, the company which provides bus service for the district, will also attend the meeting.

"I anticipate that the board will make no decisions concerning any changes in bus routes at this meeting," Clark said. "We are giving the board an opportunity to see what is going on and also allow the public to see the tremendous flow of information we are providing to board members."

The board is also scheduled to consider a new policy about naming or renaming school facilities. In addition, a policy about accepting memorials, scholarships and other gifts will be considered.

Clark said this year renaming facilities has been an issue. A group of individuals suggested renaming the Cape Girardeau Area Vocational School in honor of retiring director Gary Gilbert. Another group of students and community members developed names for sports complexes in the district. The proposed names included some individuals.

"We studied the historical perspective of this issue and discovered that this was an issue in the late 1970s right after the new gymnasium and swimming pool complex were built," he said. "It occurred again in 1980 when a proposal was made about naming facilities. In 1984, it was an issue again."

Clark said each time the school board did not act. "The board now is reluctant to name facilities because, still, in 1992, we do not have a policy."

A draft proposal would allow school buildings or portions of buildings to be named after individuals if the person had a significant impact on the school, state or nation and has been deceased for at least three years.

"This will be a first reading," Clark said of the proposed policy. "It won't be adopted until July."

Three committees studying educational programs, facilities and finances will make presentations to the board Monday, ending one phase of the Project Partnership long-range planning process and beginning another.

Clark said chairmen of the committees are scheduled to take the board through each of the reports.

"I anticipate that the board will take this data and then go into the retreat and discuss it," Clark said. "I also anticipate that they will call for anyone in the community who has a reaction or comment about the reports to do so in writing to board members before the end of this month."

The board has scheduled a retreat July 10-13 at Holiday Inn South in St. Louis.

"We are going to try to come out of the retreat with a long-range plan," he said.