SCHOOL BOUNDARIES TRAVERSE COUNTY LINES

Many people assume Cape Girardeau County has five school districts, Bollinger County has four and Perry County has two. But school boundaries don't always follow county lines.

For example, Cape Girardeau, Delta, Jackson, Nell Holcomb and Oak Ridge school districts all are in Cape Girardeau County, but only two of the districts -- Cape Girardeau and Nell Holcomb -- are completely within the county.

Delta and Jackson districts both occupy small regions of Bollinger County, while Oak Ridge reaches into parts of Perry County.

And the southwest corner of Cape Girardeau County includes a tiny portion of Stoddard County's Advance School District.

Although it is confusing, the variances generally don't amount to much in terms of funding or enrollment. However, there are times when the boundary lines make a difference.

"It is confusing when you have property in both counties and they vote in different places," said Delta schools Superintendent Tom Allen. "Sometimes, especially if there's an election issue or a close school-board race, it can make a real difference."

Allen should know, because passage of a Delta schools measure Tuesday could have been adversely affected by its Bollinger County patrons.

Delta school officials requested waiver of a Proposition C rollback, a proposal to increase the district's tax-levy ceiling and allow the district to increase the levy if necessary. The measure received a simple majority for passage.

When Cape Girardeau County election results came in, the measure appeared to have passed by a vote of 165 to 159. However, school officials could not rest easy because some 15 or so Bollinger County voters live in the Delta School District.

Allen said he had not put much emphasis on the vote totals Tuesday night because the district had not planned an immediate tax increase. However, he was happy to see that although Bollinger County voters defeated the measure 1-2, the measure passed.

"When it is that close it certainly can be very important," he said. "You can't feel certain until all the totals are in."

Gary Dixon of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education said the variance between county lines and school-district boundaries dates back to state reorganization efforts of the early 1950s. Dozens of one-room school buildings existed throughout every county, and the attendance areas rarely followed county lines, he said.

Rather, families attended buildings that were geographically and historically relevant to them, and after the state ordered counties to consolidate the schools into larger districts, those regions tended to remain intact, he said.

"It's not unusual at all to be in one or two counties," Dixon said. "There are some of them in five or six counties, but that doesn't happen very often."

In Cape Girardeau County, some 72 school districts were consolidated to the five major districts of today.

Better roads and transit systems made it easier to gather students in larger, better-equipped schools. The consolidation resulted in better access to educational opportunities and facilities, improved rural education and more equitable per-student expenditures, officials said.

Jackson School District, which is one of the largest in the state in terms of geographic area, has closed many of its community schools over the years. The district closed the Burfordville Attendance Center in 1995 after it opened a sixth- and seventh-grade middle school in Jackson.

"I don't think that was a real big problem, but it always hurts people's feelings when you close a community school," said Jackson schools assistant superintendent Fred Jones.

The district has experienced growth in the past decade, and two years ago the Jackson Board of Education questioned whether its last two outlying schools should remain open.

"The obvious thing is operating separate cafeterias and providing additional custodians, secretaries and the like," Jones said. "But there's some good things about that too: There are some good educational benefits for a small community school."

Residents of Gordonville and Millersville were vehement in their desire to keep their schools open, and the school board ultimately opted not to shut them down. Grade levels were adjusted, however, and now Gordonville houses first, second and third grades while kindergarten through third grades meet at Millersville. Older students attend classes at larger elementary schools.

"We provide adequate classrooms for students in those communities. When we get larger classes we have to move some students into town," Jones said.

School districts may change boundaries or reconsolidate through elections, but generally districts opt to leave things as they are because of a lack of financial benefits from changes.

"Usually, you're not dealing with enough students that it would let you lose staff accordingly, so reorganization is something most districts wouldn't want to do unless it would alleviate problems with something like transportation," Dixon said. "If it comes about today, it's usually because one school loses enough students it can't really provide a quality program, so they unite with a larger district."