SCHOOL BOUNDARIES UNDER ADVISEMENT; MINORITY GOALS STILL AREN'T MET

An ad hoc committee studying relocation of elementary school boundaries made a report to the Cape Girardeau Board of Education Monday night.

The Attendance Area Study Committee was assembled in 1996 to study enrollment projections and to develop new elementary school attendance boundaries based upon the reduction of elementary buildings from six to five after the opening of a new elementary building. The committee was reconvened in January to take another look at the boundaries and projections.

The committee, which consisted of elementary school principals and a parent from each school, was charged with developing a revised recommendation to meet goals regarding enrollment and racial diversity in each building.

Steve Trautwein, committee chairman, said the new recommendation made better use of building capacities and would enable all buildings with the exception of Alma Schrader to fall within 10 percent of the district's 25 percent overall minority enrollment.

"We still have not achieved the target minority enrollment at all of the schools, but we're quite confident that as populations shift and as this committee or another like it studies this issue, that percentage will be able to be achieved," Trautwein said.

The school board will take the report under consideration until April.

Bill Duffy and other school patrons asked school board members to consider grandfathering in any new boundaries to allow students to continue attending their current schools to "minimize the effects of any move."

"Redistricting can be accomplished if it is planned out," said Duffy. "I believe grandfathering is in the best interest of students and families."

Assistant superintendent David Giles, who was the administrative liaison to the committee, said the committee had not considered a phased-in plan in detail but was against such a plan "intellectually."

"The first committee did intellectually look at grandfathering and supported it. This committee did not support it at all," he said.

Representatives from a group that wants to protect the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Washington's Birthday (Presidents Day) holidays also made a report to the board. Debra Mitchell-Braxton and the Rev. Howard McGee asked school board members to protect the holidays from future use as inclement weather make-up days.

A committee that exists independent of the school board was formed in January after school officials decided to use planned school holidays to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and Washington's Birthday to make up days missed because of bad weather.

"Other school districts in the area start a week earlier, or they use the District Teachers Meeting day or the Monday after Easter as inclement make-up days," said Braxton. "We want our schools to take the leadership role in protecting national holidays like Dr. King's day."

District representatives from the Community Teachers Association and the Missouri School Teachers Association told board members they did not want patrons to believe they made the decision to use the holidays as make-up days.

"We don't advocate using any scheduled days off except in extreme conditions, and we do not feel this year it was an extreme condition," said CTA member Betty Voss.

In January, board members said the holidays have always been used as make-up days when inclement weather forces school cancellations early during the school year. They also stated the calendar is usually developed by district staff.

Said MSTA president Brenda Woemmel: "Although staff initially receives three calendars, and we decide which of those we support, we have no input, nor do we make the decision which days are used. Although we didn't name the new school for President Harry Truman, we have to say the buck stops here, gentlemen, not with the teachers."