SCHOOL PROPOSAL GATHERING SUPPORT

Support from several different parts of the community has made Cape Girardeau Schools Superintendent Dan Steska optimistic about support for an $18 million bond issue to be considered by voters April 4.

The Cape Girardeau City Council and Chamber of Commerce board of directors, Central High School's All-School Booster Club and Athletic Foundation, and the district's five Parent Teacher Associations all have pledged support for the bond issue.

Industry partners of the Career and Technology Center also have pledged support for the measure, which would finance construction of a new high school, and allow school officials to close the aging Louis J. Schultz School and reconfigure grade levels at every building.

The bond issue does not require a tax increase. A four-sevenths majority, nearly 57 percent, is needed for passage.

"I think we're getting a lot of good feedback that says people support the new high school," said Steska. "I think they understand educational needs have changed and the district really needs this."

Steska thinks voters are expressing support because of the planning that's gone into the cost and details of the new building.

School board members received proposals from several architects and construction managers and made multiple trips to the St. Louis area to view recently constructed high schools before voting to enter a contract with William B. Ittner Inc. for design and possible construction of the new high school.

Since early February, Ittner architect Dennis Young has met several times with a design team comprised of staff, parents, students and administrators to determine the present and future needs of a high school facility.

More space for fine arts programs, larger science labs and classrooms and a much larger library are only a few of the recommendations the design team has made.

"Curriculum needs change over years, and when they do that, along with enrollment increases, you end up with classes held in rooms designed as locker rooms," Young said. Central High School "no longer serves the educational needs of students and the enrollment."

The bond issue would provide the district some $25 million for the new facility. Young said the building's design will include only what is most necessary for the future. Areas like an auditorium, football stadium and additional classrooms will be planned for, but they won't be included in the original bids.

"There's no fat involved, but it's real precise, careful thinking about the programs you have, the number of students you have, and where those programs might be going in the future," Young said. "We received a list of what's perceived as needs, then that was reviewed by the design team and they helped prioritize the needs in terms of what is truly fundamental."

In addition to changes in curriculum, the new high school also would enable the district to meet new safety needs for students. Parking would be behind the school, and the cafeteria would be large enough to accommodate a closed-campus policy school officials plan to enact.

The new high school also would have about one-fourth the number of entrances at Central High School, and with ninth-graders housed at the high school, school officials would be able to lock exterior doors from the inside to restrict access into the building.

"A new high school would really impact a lot of different educational issues and concerns," Steska said.

He cautioned that the need for a new high school doesn't mean Central High School has outlived its usefulness. Central High School, which was designed and built by Ittner in 1953, is a good facility that, with electrical and heating and cooling upgrades, could be a wonderful learning environment for a seventh-and eighth-grade junior high.

Although some Central Junior High School teachers are concerned about leaving their current building, most of that concern is because the current high school is not air-conditioned. However, a plan being considered by school officials would enable them to place cooling units similar to those found in hotels in each classroom for about $441,000.

If they do so, every building would be air-conditioned when the new high school opened in fall 2002, Steska said.

"The money for that would come out of the capital projects levy and current balances over two or three years," he said. "The money we're asking for with the bond issue just pays for the new high school."