Cape Central Junior High breaks ground on new library project

A new library at Cape Girardeau Central Junior High School will provide a lot more room for teachers to integrate more resources into learning and will place a new importance on reading for students, school staff and district officials say.

An official groundbreaking ceremony was held Thursday morning at the school for the $2.4 million addition. The library is the latest project to begin in a long list of districtwide building improvement projects financed by $40 million in bonds approved by voters in 2010.

School librarian Libby Wilson said her opinions were sought and considered during the library's design but that she sees the addition as becoming the students' space more than her own.

Wilson said the district's attention to the project shows students that staff is serious about students' time spent reading and their opinion that reading often is required to be successful.

The 8,300-square-foot one-story addition will be at the northeast corner of the school. Plans for the interior include a classroom, conference room, computer lab, checkout desk and book stacks integrated with open reading areas, according to a news release from the district. The tentative completion date for the library is near the start of the 2012-2013 school year.

Similar to the bids for the high school's performing arts center, bids for the library came in over budget, although the school board approved the bids in September to move ahead with the construction process while district staff and the hired construction management company, McCarthy Bros., changed the design of the building to reduce the cost.

According to Dr. Jim Welker, superintendent of the district, the cost is now close to what the district budgeted.

Not all of the funding for the library is coming from voter-approved bonds. Around $1.3 million will come from a public trust that the school board approved use of for the library earlier in the year. Welker said money in the trust comes from the sale of the Schultz school.

The district has no definite plans for the area of the school that now houses the library, but Welker said there is a good possibility the space could be turned into classrooms.

eragan@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

205 Caruthers Ave., Cape Girardeau, MO