SCHOOL OFFICIALS PROMOTE MASTER PLAN

Cape Girardeau public school officials Friday made their first concentrated effort to promote good feelings and votes for the school district's master plan.

Dr. Dan Tallent, school superintendent, addressed the Chamber of Commerce First Friday Coffee in the first in a series of presentations he hopes will gather support for a comprehensive overhaul to existing district buildings and programs.

The improvements require passage of a $14 million bond proposal in April and another $14 million bond proposal in April 1999 or 2000. Voters also will decide next April whether to waive the district's Proposition C rollback, which would result in a 39-cent tax increase.

"We're hoping to hit just about every organization in the community," said Tallent. "My thought would be the majority of these people would support it because the plan will in the end make the community more attractive to businesses."

Tallent said the district is sending letters to community action groups offering to give a similar presentation to their members.

Tallent said the district could only rely on property taxes for the capital, and the project should be viewed as an investment in Cape Girardeau because better schools will improve the economic picture in the city.

"As a public school, the property tax is the only avenue we have to generate these funds," Tallent said. "This is an investment in our community, and we've got to view these improvements as a way to help build the city because the schools do affect the economic community."

Dr. Ken Dobbins, vice president of finance and administration at Southeast Missouri State University and a member of the district's financial planning committee for the master plan, said people should be aware that an income-tax rebate is available for senior citizens on a fixed income.

"The big concern will be those people who are retired and on a fixed income," said Dobbins. "If they're eligible for this state rebate, they're going to get (their property taxes) back in their income taxes."

Tallent said the tax rebate falls under a senior citizen property tax relief act that was designed to provide tax relief for seniors on a fixed income. If a senior citizen made under $7,000 in a year, he said, that person would be eligible for a $750 straight tax rebate. If the income falls between $7,000 and $15,000 in a year, that rebate would be prorated, he said. Senior citizens making more than $15,000 would not be eligible for the tax break, he said.

"We're going to send student groups out to the senior center and other places to make sure they're taking advantage of that rebate," Tallent said.

The district plan would create new grade groupings, which Tallent said would improve the quality of instruction. Students would be grouped so that an elementary center would be created for kindergarten through fourth-grade students. The plan also would create a fifth-sixth grade center, a seventh-eighth grade center, and a ninth-12th grade high school.

During the first phase, the master plan calls for renovations to Alma Schrader, Clippard and Franklin elementary schools and an addition to Jefferson Elementary School. In that phase May Greene and Washington schools would be closed. Tallent said the district is committed to making sure the buildings don't become eyesores.

The vocational-technical school also would be renovated to house district offices and programs during the first phase of the plan.

The second phase calls for construction of a high school and renovations to the high-school and junior-high-school buildings. L.J. Schultz School would be closed during this phase.

During phase three an elementary school would be built and other projects would begin depending on population shifts or growth in student populations.

"These costs are very conservative, and we spread them over a 24-year period," Tallent said. "School improvements have a dramatic affect on communities, and the quality of life in a community is based on the quality of life in our schools."