Scott City schools near end of large expansion project

No more shared classrooms. No more eating lunch at 10:30 a.m. No more transporting students to the Osage Community Centre in Cape Girardeau because of a lack of athletic practice space in the gym.

Many of the space-related problems that have plagued Scott City students and teachers for years will disappear in the next month as a multimillion dollar building project nears completion.

The 47,000-square-foot addition, with 20 elementary and middle school classrooms, is located north of the existing elementary-middle-high school complex, and is connected to the older building by four hallways.

The project also included the construction of a new 7,600-square-foot industrial technology building that holds a large work area with some new equipment, a classroom equipped with 14 computer stations and locker rooms for the school's football stadium.

"It's extraordinary. Truly a state-of-the-art building. One of the best in Southeast Missouri, I'm sure," said industrial technology teacher Travis Estes. "The entire project, with the new addition, will without a doubt be better for everyone in the long run."

$3.5 million bond

The addition and renovations to the existing building were made possible through a $3.5 million bond issue passed in 2001 with the help of a community-wide financing campaign.

"We spent weekends making phone calls, going door to door to drum up support," superintendent Diann Bradshaw said. "And the community came through. It's a good feeling to work in a place where the community supports the school."

After 31 years in the same dingy, cramped room, elementary librarian Loretta Templeton has spent the past two weeks moving 18,000 books, videos and tapes into a newly-converted library that is more than double the size of the old one.

"I have the best-looking room in the school now," Templeton said.

The school converted the former industrial technology room into an elementary library with new furniture, nine computer stations, three artificial skylights and carpeted risers to serve as a cozy reading area for students.

It's a far cry from the small room where students were forced to sit on the tile floor in front of the main entrance for story time, and teachers had to walk sideways between desks to access computers.

"We're getting to spread out now, and it's wonderful," Templeton said. "I couldn't be happier."

The old library will serve as a new art room for elementary art teacher Lynne Taylor.

The classroom Taylor has worked in for the past 15 years was equipped with just one sink, inadequate storage space and was so small that her students couldn't work on large projects, such as sculptures.

"It's like a dream, really. My new room is nearly triple the size of the old one," Taylor said. "It's going to allow me to do so many more things with the students that we couldn't do in the old room."

The construction project was originally planned to be completed several months ago, but weather and material delays held it back.

Representatives from Porterfield, the Poplar Bluff, Mo., architectural firm that designed the building, should begin to test things like the air conditioning system, floor tiles and cabinetry for flaws this Friday.

District officials hope to have everything in place by the first week of August. A dedication ceremony is being planned, but a date has not been set.

As part of the construction project, the former elementary gymnasium was renovated earlier this year into a serving cafeteria for students in kindergarten through fifth grade.

The cafeteria is not equipped with a kitchen. Instead, workers use heated carts to transport food from the main cafeteria.

The move relieved a tight schedule in the school's main cafeteria, which in prior years had required kindergartners to eat lunch at 10:30 a.m.

"That's way too early for students to eat lunch," said Marsha Johnston, a PTO volunteer with a fifth-grader at Scott City. "Now they don't have to walk across the school to the other cafeteria. It's closer to the playground and they're not as rushed."

With the new space, students begin eating lunch at 11 a.m.

An 8,000-square-foot air-conditioned multipurpose room, with six basketball goals, locker rooms, coaches' offices, a classroom and weight lifting room were also part of the project.

"It's really balanced out the facility," said Larry Dunger, a Scott City resident who chaired the building committee for the new addition. "And it's going to be a tremendous benefit to the students."

cclark@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 128