LETTERS: GOOD SCHOOLS ARE FOR EVERYONE

To the editor:

When I was asked to serve on the steering committee to help pass the bond issue to fund a new high school, I couldn't think fast enough to say no. I though, "Why me?" I'm retired, 75 years old, have no children in school and have nothing to gain personally by building a new high school.

Then I started thinking, "Why not me?" My son had graduated from Central High School. My daughter taught at Schultz about 30 years ago, carrying a box fan to keep cool in the summer. My granddaughter, the apple of my eye, is a student at Clippard. I realized this proposal was for the people of Cape Girardeau, their children, their grandchildren and, yes, their great-grandchildren.

I had operated the Riverside Home Centers for 16 years, working with some of the finest people I've ever known. Our employees came to work each day looking to see how they could service our customers. Our employees helped us grow to be the largest store of our type in the area at that time. They were our reasons for being successful.

There also were customers who depended on us to help serve their customers, those who were just moving to town or were building a new home. It wasn't Cape Girardeau that needed a new high school, It was all the people of Cape Girardeau: employers, workers, teachers, business people and on and on. It was their sons and daughters, grandchildren, friends and neighbors who needed help to better equip the students of today and, more importantly to compete tomorrow in our increasingly highly technical work place. No longer are just reading, writing and arithmetic all that are required. They are essential, but there is more.

Our unemployment rate nationwide is down, but the good jobs go to those graduates who are the best qualified to fill those good jobs. I'm a member of the Greater Cape Girardeau Industrial Development Authority. Any company looking at towns like Cape Girardeau to move to start by looking at three things:

1. Schools. Good, up-to-date schools are a reflection of how the community values education.

2. Churches. A good variety of religions with up-to-date facilities are usually an indication of the community's values, standards and religious morals.

3. Workers. A pool of qualified willing workers with good work ethics is necessary.

I was on the board of Hardware Wholesalers Inc. when it was looking for a city to open a distribution center. The state computers directed them elsewhere, but they came to Cape because of its schools, churches and good workers. That is a fact.

Jefferson, Clippard and Alma Schrader elementary schools plus the junior high school building have already been reworked. Until Blanchard Elementary School was opened recently, there hadn't been a new public school in 33 years. That completes the first step of the master plan. The next step is a new high school and closing of obsolete Schultz School. That will permit the equivalent of five to six classrooms per elementary school. This utilizes space created by reassigning grades to the existing high school, junior high school and elementary schools. Smaller classes can be the result.

Today's job requirements require good facilities and good teachers who can equip today's and tomorrow's students to compete for the good jobs that are being created in our country.

After thinking it through, I realize all of us who have worked and lived in Cape owe it to the children of today and tomorrow to let the bright future of the developing work technology begin here.

We hope you will think it through and come up with the decision to vote yes on April 4 for the future. Remember, there will be no tax-levy rate increase. After 17 years, the present rate will be extended three years. If you have questions, don't hesitate to call Dr. Dan Steska, school superintendent, for answers. No question is unimportant if it is important to you.

CLIFF RUDESILL

Cape Girardeau