NEW CENTRAL HIGH IS OFFICIALLY UNDER WAY

The bring-your-own-dirt theme of the new Cape Girardeau Central High School groundbreaking was truly inspired.

Of course, there's so much about the project that is inspiring.

First of all, Cape Girardeau voters passed, by a 75 percent margin, a $18 million bond issue in April for the construction of the school. That kind of approval is virtually unheard of these days, but voters obviously knew the existing 48-year-old Central High School building has outlived its usefulness as a state-of-the-art high school and needs improvement for its planned use as a middle school.

The new high school is expected to open in 2002 at a cost of $23 million. The new school will have a larger cafeteria, library and fine arts facilities to accommodate future growth.

The high school construction comes on the heels of the near-completion of the district's new vocational school next door to the new high school site along a section of Silver Springs Road between Interstate 55 and South Kingshighway. Voters approved money for the new school, called the career and technology, center in 1997.

Those two votes were an unflinching declaration from city residents: We appreciate education. We want our kids to have the best. And we want to accommodate future children.

Finally, there's that idea of bringing dirt to the new construction site for last Friday's groundbreaking.

Students brought a special coffee mug full of dirt from each public school in Cape Girardeau. Superintendent Dan Steska said the dirt was spread as symbol of all the other schools investing in the high school and of the rich education tradition that lies in Cape Girardeau.

And Central High's athletic director, Terry Kitchen, gave one of his trademark evangelical speeches about the project, assuring the 100 people in attendance that the new school would be under God's protection.

Cape Girardeau residents can be proud they're paying for some first-place accommodations for future high school students.