REPORT: SCHOOLS A GENERATION BEHIND

Cape Girardeau schools lag a generation behind other districts in offering up-to-date technology and modern buildings for its students, a facilities committee says.

"The students deserve better, the staff deserves better and the taxpayers deserve better," said Jim Drury, a committee member who studied the vocational/career needs for the district.

It has been at least 30 years since the Cape Girardeau school district purchased land or constructed a new building. The last new structure to be built was the Vocational-Technical building in 1967.

Some of the other buildings are more than 80 years old and have been plagued by continuous repairs and renovations.

"It's a glaring problem," said Bob Blank, a school board member. "We've hashed and rehashed it. Every time we tie a knot in the rope we are closer to the end. We've got to get this resolved."

Committee members developed a list of solutions for the board to consider. The recommendations were made during a work session meeting with the school board Thursday night.

The highest priority was to plan for future needs by developing a long-term plan that would address growth over a 10-to-15-year period. The best way to address the growth is to build a new elementary school and eliminate Washington and May Greene Elementary schools and Louis J. Schultz School, the committee concludes.

But the district won't tear down any schools yet. Some of the buildings will remain usable for the next 10 years, according to engineering reports.

However, the school board must develop a master plan and long-range goals for the buildings before any work is done. The board will meet again Saturday morning to discuss its long-range building plans.

"There is no alarm that we will start demolishing buildings in the near future," said Melvin Gately, a committee member who focused on the elementary buildings.

Although none of the information presented by the facilities committee was new to members of the Cape Girardeau Board of Education, the priorities were.

BUILDING REPORT

After touring buildings and studying structural reports, a facilities committee made its recommendations to the Cape Girardeau Board of Education. The report includes all elements that should be considered as the board develops its five-year facilities plan.

-- A comprehensive facility plan should not be limited to five years but should address facilities needs for a minimum of 10 to 15 years.

-- As a plan is developed, consideration should be given to eliminating the following buildings: Washington, May Greene and Louis J. Schultz.

-- New elementary facilities should be included to allow for the elimination of facilities that cannot be economically renovated and to allow for shifts in population density.

-- Grades 5 and 6 should be located together to allow for the expansion of program offerings for students at these grade levels.

-- Grades 7 and 8 should be located together to allow for the expansion of program offerings for students at these grade levels.

-- Grades 9-12 should be located together to allow for the coordination of programs, staff and extra-curricular programs.

-- A new vocational technical/career center should be constructed to meet the growing needs in this area.

-- A new high school facility should be co-located with the vocational technical/career center to increase the opportunities for high school students to access the programs at the vocational technical/career center.

-- Current elementary and secondary facilities will need to be renovated to accommodate the program that will be offered in these facilities.

-- A plan should include purchase of property for future facility needs.

-- There should be a plan for what will be done with the buildings that are vacated.

-- Whenever possible, the plan should show savings in costs as old buildings are eliminated.