LOWER COST OF HIGH SCHOOL IS GOOD NEWS

Cape Girardeau School District officials got some news last week they were happy to hear:

Three construction bids came in for the new Central High School, and all were well below the district's $19.6 million cost estimate. The district awarded the contract Friday to Kiefner Brothers Inc. for $17.4 million.

This good news is in stark contrast to the latest update on the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center. This $11 million project will be finished within the next few months. It stands proudly on Interstate 55 for passers-by to appreciate.

The classrooms will be filled with state-of-the-art technology designed specifically for the classes to be taught inside. Gleaming new kitchen equipment fills the kitchens, and computer stations dot lecture rooms.

But school officials have lost some of the potential joy associated with the completion of this project as they scrimp and scrounge to pay for it.

While construction bills for the career-tech center have been coming in, $1 million in state funding district officials were expecting has been held up in litigation. The state money, instead of coming here, may have to be returned to voters under the Hancock Amendment, depending on the outcome of the lawsuit.

And the career-tech center was dealt another blow Thursday when Gov. Bob Holden's plan to use tobacco-settlement money to cover that $1 million and another $126 million in capital-improvement expenses failed in the House of Representatives.

The district has been forced to transfer money from its operating budget to the capital budget to make construction payments for the career-tech center.

So why not transfer the extra money from the high school bond issue to make up for the career-tech center shortfall?

Well, something like that could work, district superintendent Dan Steska says. Although money from bonds sold for the high school couldn't go to the career center the ballot specifically said the money was to be used for the high school capital dollars that were supposed to go to equip the high school could go to the career center.

Unfortunately, the district probably won't be in a position of having extra money to transfer here and there. In addition to building the new high school the district must equip the building with computers, desks, stoves, dishwashers, pencil sharpeners and all the rest. All that is going to bring the grand total to over $20 million.

Which takes the district back to hoping for a final solution in its favor in the Hancock Amendment lawsuit soon.