SCHULTZ STUDEN TS TAKING COLLAPSE IN STRIDE

The fallen bricks are gone from L.J. Schultz School's roof, but a bigger problem remains: what to do with an overcrowded, falling-down school.

Last week's parapet collapse was the most recent structural incident at Schultz, where potential tragedies are becoming too frequent for comfort.

The building, originally built as a high school, will turn 82 this year, along with May Greene Elementary. May Greene hasn't seen the problems of its fellow school, however.

In 1987, Schultz's south wall separated from the rest of the building. In 1992, a portion of the cafeteria roof caved in.

Students are taking the latest collapse in stride, Principal John Eck said. A few parents called to see if it was safe to send their children, and they were told to put them on the bus as usual.

Workers with Kiefner Bros. loaded the last of the fallen bricks into a cherry picker Wednesday and then covered the rest of the parapet in plastic to keep water out.

"We don't think there is any apparent, current danger, but a wall could collapse tomorrow -- it's done it before," Eck said. "We don't want to be alarmists about this."

The Cape Girardeau Board of Education is looking for a structural engineer to do a thorough examination and plan to have a commitment from one by Monday.

Dr. Richard Bollwerk, acting superintendent, said the Schultz situation was an emergency and needed to be solved as soon as possible.

An architectural firm examined all the buildings three years ago to tell the board how each could be used and found no immediate problems. All the buildings' roofs are relatively new, Bollwerk said, and all have had maintenance work done as problems arose.

Now the board wants to develop a long-range maintenance strategy for every building.

The immediate problem is Schultz, where it may take a month to decide on a plan of action, school board member Terry Taylor said. It may be that Schultz isn't worth repairing.

"If it's going to cost a fortune, I hate to put good money after bad," Taylor said.

Some have hinted that a bond issue to repair schools and build new schools is the best solution to maintenance problems, but Taylor said he wanted to reserve comment until the report on Schultz was in.

Cape Girardeau voters have rejected money-raising issues three times in the past decade.