State study needs job focus, schools say

The state should identify high-demand jobs in Southeast Missouri and the type of education such jobs require as part of any study on the feasibility of establishing a community college or providing other post-secondary training in the region, area school officials say.

Superintendents and administrators from six school districts and Notre Dame Regional High School held a 45-minute meeting Friday afternoon at the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center. The districts represented were Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Meadow Heights, Oak Ridge, Woodland and Scott City.

The meeting was called by career center director Rich Payne to suggest data that could be collected by the Missouri Department of Higher Education as part of an education needs study.

Payne said the superintendents suggested that state officials look at everything from what is a reasonable commuting distance to the number of high school students who graduate with an ACT score of less than 18, the benchmark for admission to Southeast Missouri State University's Cape Girardeau campus.

While some Cape Girardeau business leaders have suggested the need for a community college, school officials at the meeting stressed the end result might involve some type of collaboration with Southeast and other existing educational institutions in the region.

The superintendents are "sensitive to the taxing issue," Payne said following the meeting. In Missouri, voter approval of a property tax levy is required to establish a community college.

School districts depend on local property taxes to help finance their operations. As a result, school districts need voters to approve any levy increases.

"We are not pushing anything," said Cape Girardeau public schools superintendent Dr. David Scala, who attended the meeting. "We are just getting information."

Payne and several business leaders have had private discussions dating back at least four years about the possibility of establishing a community college in Cape Girardeau. Education and civic leaders publicly raised the issue after a meeting last month at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce office with Missouri higher education commissioner Dr. Robert Stein.

The latest discussion was prompted by a study planned by the Missouri Department of Economic Development plans to assess job-training needs in Southeast Missouri. Stein has met with economic development officials to discuss the study and asked Payne and others to suggest what data needs to be compiled as part of the study.

At this point, the focus is on identifying needed job skills and the post-secondary education required to develop such skills, superintendents said.

"Being one of the larger school districts in the area, we are very much interested in what is best for our students and also for the region," Jackson schools superintendent Dr. Ron Anderson said. "I will be interested to see what data will be generated."

Rob Huff, superintendent of the Meadow Heights School District, said he and other administrators in rural school districts in the region want their students to pursue post-secondary education.

Huff said the study should look at job needs and the career needs of high school graduates. "It's great to get an education, but at some point you have to get a job," he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123