SECOND TIME AROUND: PERRYVILLE SCHOOLS TAKE BOND ISSUE TO PEOPLE

PERRYVILLE -- In a style that has come to represent 1990s politics, supporters of a measure to fund new school buildings in Perryville are going straight to the people to ask for their vote.

Their strategy includes phone calls to registered voters and town meetings, all in an effort to amass plenty of "yes" votes.

The key to a successful campaign is finding voters who will support the measure and making sure they get to the polls, organizers say. They also want to find out why other voters are against the issue, said Kim Moore, vice president of the Perry County School Board.

"We want to find voters who are confused or have strong enough objections in their minds to make a special effort to go out and vote `no,'" Moore said.

The Aug. 4 ballot will ask voters to endorse a $4.9 million bond issue to pay for a new school building and structural improvements in existing buildings.

This is the second time the board has put the issue before voters. In April, a slightly larger bond issue and a 19-cent increase in the school tax levy failed at the polls.

It is hoped that with the tax levy no longer on the ballot, the bond issue will pass, said Perryville Superintendent Ron Fitch.

"Our approach has been a little bit different this time," Fitch said. "Personal, face-to-face contact is what works the best."

More than 100 volunteers have phoned registered voters in the county, hoping to answer questions about the bond issue and talk about overcrowding in the district, and also to remind them to vote.

"The needs that existed in April have not gone away," said Moore. "We have an obvious need for classrooms because of overcrowding, especially in the elementary grades.

"It's only going to get worse."

Enrollment in the district has jumped, so much so that classes are being switched to different buildings. That means students sometimes have to walk across campus several times to attend various classes.

Moore said the situation is at its worst in the winter, when students have to walk across campus "two or three times a day" on cold or snowy weather.

Local doctors have told school board members that they've noticed a marked increase in colds and cases of flu among student during winter months, Moore said.

The doctors "attribute it to the fact that kids are walking from one end of the campus to the other in bad weather," he said.

The building plan to be financed by the bond issue includes a decade of construction projects which officials have labeled a "10-year master plan."

The amount of the bond issue has been lowered slightly since April for the upcoming election. The current proposal is $16,000 less because school officials decided not to include costs of tearing down a house on school property in the building plan. The area would have been used as a parking lot.

The house is where Fitch's office is located and it's where the board of education meets. It sits across from the junior high school.

The board of education voted in May to include the bond issue in next week's election, but drop the tax increase. Moore and Fitch said however that the tax increase will be needed in 1993 or 1994 and will likely be put before voters at that time.

In April, both issues failed by small margins. The bond issue needed 57 percent of the vote to pass, but received 52 percent. The tax increase needed a simple majority, or 50 percent, to pass. It received just under that, 48 percent.

The total amount of the bond issue is $4,941,000.

Fitch said he's optimistic about how the bond issue will fare Aug. 4. He said historically, voter turnout is higher in August elections that in April elections. In April, the school issues were among few on the ballot, in August, they'll be among many. That may add up to a higher turnout, he said.

Fitch said the amount of community involvement in trying to get the bond issue passed has been high, another good sign for school officials.

"During the past year we've involved 350 to 400 people in various committees in the school system," the superintendent said. "That's going to benefit the district for the next several years."

A long-range planning committee made up of school officials and residents of the district was the first to suggest the 10-year master plan to the board of education.

Members of a group called "Citizens for the Future of District 32" have also been advocates of the bond issue. Members of that group have been phoning registered voters to discuss the measure, Fitch said.

"We'll call most of them back on election day and remind them to vote," he said.

Several town meetings have been held, although they were not well-attended.

But the superintendent said a small attendance is okay. "Folks are very busy today with their jobs and their own activities. Just because they don't show up for these meetings doesn't mean they're not supportive" of them, he said.

Moore said three factors likely led the failure of both school proposals in April. He said the former district superintendent had campaigned against the measures, saying they were not the best way to fund school improvements. Other factors included opposition to tearing down the board of education building and an overall voter aversion to more taxes, he said.

If the issue fails next week, Moore, an attorney, said the board has discussed making concessions so that students don't have to move from building to building during a day of classes.

But, he said, it will mean "cramped quarters" for students, "at least until we can convince voters that there is a need for this. That something has to be done."

The building plan would add 64,000 feet to the 100-acre campus in classroom and cafeteria space. The tax increase was earmarked to pay the salaries of two additional elementary teachers, one elementary counselor and operating costs.

Town meetings scheduled this week are Monday at the district kindergarten center in Sereno and Wednesday at the Biehle Social Club. Meetings begin at 7 p.m.