SCHOOLS PROPOSAL TO BE PRESENTED TO BOARD TONIGHT

A long-range plan over a year in the making will be officially presented to the Cape Girardeau Board of Education tonight.

The meeting starts at 6 p.m. at Central High Junior High.

Board members say they want community feedback about the plan before officially adopting it.

After the plan is unveiled, the board will wait 30 days before voting. During that time, the members hope the public will examine the proposals and tell the school board what they think.

The plan calls for a 69-cent property tax increase to pay for mostly facility improvements over the next 10 years. In the first phase the district would build a new vocational building and elementary building and renovate the four elementary schools it plans to keep.

The second phase calls for a new high school, converting the junior high school to a fifth- and sixth-grade center and the old high school to a seventh- and eighth-grade center. Eventually May Greene, Washington and Louis J. Schultz schools would be closed.

Under the plan, property taxes would increase from the current $2.88 per $100 assessed valuation to $3.57.

Superintendent Dan Tallent said lots of committees have worked to develop this plan based on ideas collected during a series of public meetings held a year ago.

Through the planning process, Tallent said, two suggestions were voiced by almost every committee: develop a long-range plan to phase in facility improvements and keep the tax levy as low as possible. Tallent thinks the proposed master plan does both those things.

But, he said, if people in the community don't like parts of the plan, things could be changed. "I don't think anything is set in stone," he said.

Copies of the master plan will be available for people to review.

The board plans to adopt a long-range plan at its November meeting.

The master plan now being considered recommends improved educational programs, including a hefty dose of new technology. It also addresses facility upgrades, new construction and ways to pay for the improvements.

The board is expected to ask for voter approval to sell $14 million in bonds. A 30-cent tax increase would be needed to pay back those bonds. In addition, the board is expected to ask for a 39-cent tax increase by asking voters to waive the Proposition C rollback. About two years down the road, a second $14 million bond issue would be placed before voters. The second $14 million in bonds could be sold without another tax increase.