DISTRICT ARRIVES AT AFFORDABLE HIGH-SCHOOL PLAN

Plans for a new Cape Girardeau high school have brought on target in the last month, and the Cape Girardeau Board of Education and administrators deserve considerable credit for this remarkable effort.

Money -- or lack of it -- is often the root of problems, and such was the case with the new high school. The districts had set aside $18 million to build the school. In early December, estimates from one of the largest builders of public schools in the nation ranged from a pricey $30.7 million to a whopping $47.4 million.

For a time, it looked as if a new high school was simply out of reach. The Board of Education had pledged that a bond vote this spring would not require a tax increase, and members took that pledge seriously.

But instead of hand wringing, Superintendent Dan Steska and board members took the offensive. They began looking at other high schools in Missouri and Illinois that had been built for much less.

The district was already smarting from the much delayed construction of the Blanchard Elementary School. It was supposed to be completed last summer, but students won't have their first day of classes in the new facility until Tuesday.

The board and administrators sponsored a field trip to view five recently built schools in the St. Louis area. All of the schools toured were built and furnished for about $25 million and are similar in size to the proposed school here.

District officials have a vision for the new 1,600-student school: a building that's attractive yet functional without being overly elegant. They also have the new vocational school under construction nearby. It will be built for $14 million.

The district met with two St. Louis-based companies for more cost estimates. And officials and community members visited a school in Troy, Ill. Last week, the Board of Education hired Wm. B. Ittner Inc. of St. Louis to plan, design and manage construction of the new school at a cost of $25 million. The district feels it can raise that amount without a tax increase.

Construction of a new high school is not just important to secondary students. It will allow the district to carry out its master plan of closing the aging Schultz seventh-grade center. The existing high school will be converted into a seventh-and-eighth grade junior high. The current junior high will become a fifth-and-sixth grade center. This will significantly decrease enrollment at the district's five elementary schools, which will then house kindergarten through fourth grades.

Voters need to remember the district's diligence when bond issue comes before voters.