SCHOOL BOARD WRESTLES WITH NEW HIGH SCHOOL

The Cape Girardeau Board of Education will begin researching less-expensive options to build a new high school this week.

School board members will visit five recently-built schools in the St. Louis area to determine the accuracy of several cost estimates received earlier this month from Sverdrup CRRS of St. Louis and Regional Architects Coalition of Cape Girardeau.

Both companies submitted cost estimates this month on construction of a new, 1,600-student capacity high school to house students in grades nine through 12. A third company is scheduled to submit a proposal next month.

Sverdrup representatives presented four total cost estimates ranging in price from $25.1 million and about $116 per square foot to $47.4 million at a cost of $165 per square foot. Regional Architects Coalition submitted an estimate of $26.2 million, about $114 per square foot, to build and equip a high school.

Representatives from both companies said their proposals represented what school administrators said they wanted in a new high school: A building that includes an auditorium and multimedia classrooms built for durability and low-maintenance for at least 50 years.

However, the designs differed in size, amenities, and types of building materials used.

School board president Ferrell Ervin said he hopes the visits to other schools next week will help board members determine the best design for the proposed Cape Girardeau high school.

Said Ervin: "We don't want to build a palace. We want to build a building that's extremely functional and attractive."

Superintendents of two school districts in St. Charles County just north of St. Louis believe they have recently started construction projects that meet the goals Ervin outlined.

Superintendent Bernard DuBray of Fort Zumwalt schools and Superintendent Ronald Berrey of Wentzville schools said their districts are building high schools similar in size to Cape Girardeau's planned high school that will cost between $25 and $30 million to build.

"As we researched what the cost of a comprehensive four-year high school of about 225,000 square feet would cost, we discovered it's not a cheap process," said Berrey. "But hopefully that facility you build will be there for 50 to 100 years."

Berrey said his district has divided its high school project into several phases because of difficulty raising funding. The first phase of the project, completed earlier this year, includes a two-story classroom wing, student commons area, cafeteria, library, 500-seat gymnasium and about half of the planned office and administrative space.

The school has a metal with split-faced block design with masonry interior walls to reduce long-term maintenance.

"The interior walls will last forever," said Berrey. "We used very little drywall because drywall tends to get holes kicked in it and needs to be painted much more often."

Construction of the new facility was monitored by Construction Contract Services of Chesterfield. Berrey said by employing a construction manager to represent the district's interests with architects and contractors, the district was able to keep its total costs for construction, design and professional fees, and furniture and equipment at a total cost of about $95 per square foot.

"We feel there needs to be stress between the architect and the construction manager," Berrey said. "We think that the stress of having the construction manager working for us to keep those costs down and hold the costs down is important."

DuBray said the Fort Zumwalt Board of Education also sees benefit in employing a construction manager who represents a school district on a construction project.

"Educators and school administrators are not trained engineers," he said. "It brings experience to the table we don't have."

DuBray said his district "has spent $120 million since 1985, so we know how to build a building and what it should cost to build."

Most recently, Fort Zumwalt schools built one if its three high schools in 1998 at a cost of about $22 million, including construction, furnishings and professional fees.

The building, which has a capacity of about 1,600 students, is a three-story structure that was built primarily using the tilt-up construction method. The tilt-up method involves pouring concrete panels which are then tilted up to form walls.

"It saved us a lot in costs," said DuBray. "There are a lot of techniques, a lot of ways you can hold costs down."

Cape Girardeau schools Superintendent Dan Steska said he's optimistic the school board will find a design during its visits to other districts that matches its vision for the proposed high school.

"We're looking at something that's attractive yet functional, without being overly elegant," Steska said. "We think the community wants to be proud of the school without being embarrassed by over-expenditures."

In 1997, district voters approved a $14 million bond issue to pay for the new vocational school, Blanchard Elementary School and renovations to four elementary schools and Central Junior High School. At the time voters were told that a new high school and other renovations would have to be funded by a second $14 million bond issue to be voted on in April 2000. The district pledged there would be no tax increase for the second phase of the program.

Although the board originally estimated only $16 million would be needed to construct a new high school, Steska said the district can afford a $25 million high school without a tax increase. To accomplish this, the district would use interest accumulated from the first $14 million bond issue.

The district also would move some funds from other capital projects and extend its debt-service levy. Extending that levy would also require voter approval.

The Cape Girardeau school board has not considered renovating the existing high school because it would not be able to meet educational goals for reducing enrollment and the age of school buildings in the district.

A new high school was originally planned so that school officials could close the aging Louis J. Schultz seventh-grade center. Schultz school, built in 1914, will be the oldest school in the district after Washington school closes next month. Both Washington and the younger May Greene school are being replaced by the new Barbara Blanchard Elementary School being built near the intersection of Bertling and Sprigg streets.

In addition to the closure of Schultz, the new high school would enable the district to convert the existing Central High School into a seventh-and-eighth-grade junior high school. The current junior high building would be converted into a fifth-and-sixth grade center.

The redistribution of students would significantly decrease enrollments at the district's five elementary school buildings, which would then house kindergarten through fourth grades.