SCHOOL GROUNDBREAKING COULD BE IN SEPTEMBER

If all goes as planned, Cape Girardeau Public Schools could break ground next month for the first new school building in three decades.

The Board of Education Monday approved soil testing at the Sprigg-Bertling property where an elementary school will be built. The first phase of dirt work could commence in late September.

"We will begin ground work at Sprigg-Bertling this fall," said Dr. Ferrell Ervin, board president. "With cooperative weather, we are on track to be in that building next fall."

Work on the vocational-technical school is just a couple months behind. Ervin said the scope of the project is larger. Superintendent Dan Tallent added that they must also wait for a corn crop to be harvested.

In the meantime, architects will develop a master site plan for the 75 acres just east of I-55 and south of the new bridge route where the vocational-technical school will be built. The board approved spending $15,930 for the plan.

A site plan for the entire property is needed because the school district plans to build a high school on the same site in the future.

Tallent said architects will develop rough schematics for placement of both buildings on the site. When dirt work begins for the vocational school, it will be moved to a site advantageous for construction of the high school building.

"We don't want to push that dirt twice," Tallent said.

Already the board has approved preliminary plans for an addition to Jefferson Elementary School. With help from teachers and school staff, architects are developing plans for the elementary school and vocational school.

The district's newest building, the current vocational-technical school, was constructed in 1967.

On April 1, voters approved a 69-cent tax increase that set in motion a two-phase master plan for changes in the Cape Girardeau School District.

The district is building an elementary school, a vocational-technical school, an addition at Jefferson Elementary School and renovating other schools. At the end of the first phase of the plan, May Greene and Washington elementary schools will close.

The second phase includes construction of a high school on the same property as the vocational-technical school. Grade configurations would change so that elementary schools house grades kindergarten through fourth, the junior high becomes a fifth- and sixth-grade center, the old high school becomes a seventh- and eighth-grade center, and the new high school houses grades nine through 12.

Another vote would be needed to fund the second phase but could be repaid without an additional tax levy increase.