LONG WAY TO GO BEFORE DISTRICT GETS FUNDS

Cape Girardeau School District officials are asking the state to commit an additional $1.8 million in funding for the Cape Girardeau Area Vocational-Technical School, which serves students from here and eight surrounding school districts. While the state has traditionally paid half the funding of these projects, fulfillment of this request is far from certain.

For years the state has indeed provided half the funding of these projects. In the coming year, the state is slated to send what was to be the third and final $650,000 to round out the state's $3.1 million commitment for construction of the new facility. This money was in Gov. Mel Carnahan's budget and also in the final plan approved by the Legislature. This was accomplished only over the opposition of certain members of the House of Representatives who actually zeroed out the governor's recommendation at one point. The funding was restored in the Senate.

Now, with cost overruns in the facility construction, comes the need for an additional $1.8 million. "We're hoping that will be approved by this Legislature as a supplement to the original allocation," said Cape Girardeau Schools superintendent Dan Steska. He is receiving encouragement from state officials in the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

B.J. Stockton, director of administration and accountability in DESE, said he had talked to vocational school director Harold Tilley "about the cost overruns and the reasons why, and we have plugged into the governor's request for fiscal year 2001 $1.8 million as a supplement to their fiscal year 2000 budget request. The governor will then decide whether to recommend or not recommend that particular line item." Stockton said state funding has typically been provided to supplement unanticipated costs if the school district is able to provide local match funding. Cape is using money from a $14.1 million bond issue voters approved in 1997 as matching funds, he noted.

The first big question is whether the additional funding will be included in the governor's budget. If it is, the project will have a leg up. Still, there will be many more twists and turns in the legislative process before local officials can count on this money.