SCHOOL BOUNDARY ISSUE UNRESOLVED

Parents will have to wait another month for Cape Girardeau school board members to decide whether to allow students to remain at their current schools when new boundaries take effect next fall.

Board members rejected a motion Monday to approve blanket grandfathering of elementary school students by a 4-2 vote. Dr. Bob Fox and Sharon Mueller cast the dissenting votes.

"If it's not going to throw any of the numbers off significantly, I don't see any reason why we wouldn't be able to do it," said Fox prior to the vote.

Since February, board members have discussed the placement of elementary school boundaries to prepare for the opening of Blanchard Elementary School next fall. For nearly the same amount of time, parents have asked board members to consider a grandfathering issue that would allow at least some students scheduled to move under the new boundaries to remain at their current schools.

"By allowing parents and children the option to grandfather, that would go a long way towards helping in the healing process," said Nancy Brown during the school board meeting. "It doesn't throw any of the enrollment numbers off substantially and would allow us to continue without disrupting afterschool activities."

Brown was one of many parents who spoke in favor of grandfathering during the meeting. Several speakers questioned the board's decision not to release data related to the issue to the public prior to the meeting.

"I was not expecting this vote to happen at all," said Bill Duffy, who has spoken in favor of grandfathering at other board meetings this year. "I really do believe it would be an injustice if you would be taking a vote on this without giving the public an opportunity to look at the numbers."

Assistant superintendent David Giles told board members he had conducted a nonscientific survey of parents affected by the boundary changes to determine the level of interest in grandfathering. Of 225 surveys mailed, 152 patrons responded. Some 68 percent of those responding indicated they would take advantage of the opportunity to remain at their current school.