TEACHERS READY FOR THE START OF CLASSES

Cape Girardeau schoolteacher Carolyn Ford doesn't know what impact Missouri's new funding formula and related reforms will have on education.

"I still have a lot of questions about it," she said. "I still think there is a lot of uncertainty out there."

But for Ford and her fellow teachers, the focus right now is on the more immediate task of starting a new school year. Classes begin Thursday in the Cape Girardeau public schools.

An educator for 19 years everything from a school librarian to a GED teacher this is Ford's sixth year in the school system. She teaches reading classes and gifted students at L.J. Schultz School, the district's seventh-grade center.

Her lesson plans for this school year include a unit on the Mississippi River. The devastating flooding along the river this summer will be a classroom topic, she said.

Pam Richmond also expects flooding to be a topic in her classroom.

"I think it does need to be addressed. I don't think it should be put on the back-burner," said Richmond, a volleyball coach and history teacher at Central High School.

Richmond and Ford were among the teachers and staff who gathered at the Show Me Center Tuesday in preparation for the start of school.

They heard Missouri's commissioner of education, Robert Bartman, advise the educators to give students "the opportunity to tell their story" of the flood of '93.

The flood, he said, has shattered the home life of some of Missouri's school children and had an impact on countless others.

Richmond, who is beginning her fifth year with the school system, said increased state funding of education is "a morale booster."

"It makes you feel good that this is going to occur," she said.