FUTURE OF EDUCATION BRIGHT IN CAPE GIRARDEAU

Eagle Ridge Christian School, which has grown by more than 70 students since it moved in 1994 from Scott City to Cape Girardeau, is set to begin construction of a $1.2 million building that will contain 16 classrooms, a gymnasium and cafeteria.

A ceremonial ground-breaking was held recently at the site. A price tag of $1.2 million will cover the first phase of the building that eventually would double in size. The building will bring students who now go to school in two different places together under one roof.

The school will be near the Route K site of where Notre Dame High School intends to build. Those aren't the only two schools that might be on Cape Girardeau's horizon. If voters approve a Cape Girardeau School District bond issue April 1, an elementary school will be built at Sprigg and Bertling, replacing Washington and May Greene elementary schools, and a vocational-technical school will be built on a site of about 80 acres to replace the crowded vo-tech school.

A new Cape Girardeau public high school would be built if voters down the road give it a go-ahead under the district's master plan for improvements. And Southeast Missouri State University hopes eventually to get state funding for a technical school to serve the area.

It has been three decades since Cape Girardeau has seen a new school, that being the public Alma Schrader Elementary School, and suddenly six could be going up in the next few years. The need is there, and Cape Girardeans owe it to their children to meet that need.