VOTERS CONSIDER MIDDLE SCHOOL TUESDAY

If voters approve construction of a middle school for Cape Girardeau Tuesday, it will culminate five years of study on how best to educate children in grades 6-8.

The 51-cent levy increase school district officials are asking for will fund construction of a new middle school building on property the school district own north of Bertling at Sprigg. It will also fund construction an addition at Jefferson Elementary School.

The middle school discussion began in 1988 when Board of Education members questioned if sixth-grade students could be moved from elementary schools to the L.J. Schultz building to create a two-grade middle school.

The reasoning was two-fold: a two-grade school would allow implementation of more aspects of a "middle school" and it would free up classroom space at elementary schools.

A 20-member committee of teachers, administrators and parents met weekly to discuss the merit of a middle school. Quickly the committee determined the Schultz building was to small to handle both grade levels in an adequate fashion.

The committee continued its exploration of the middle school concept.

The group toured middle schools, heard speakers and talked about what would be best for children ages 10-15.

Five months later, the group said the middle school idea would be good for Cape Girardeau youngsters.

The Board of Education said it couldn't afford to implement the plan. But the idea remained; discussions continued.

In 1991 the school board hired Neyland Clark, a former middle school principal, to lead the school district.

At a school board retreat in July 1991, board members said it was time to pursue a building project and they wanted a middle school.

In addition, the board said it was looking at other facility needs, including:

Upgrading of existing elementary buildings and/or construction of a new elementary building.

Air conditioning schools across the district.

Improving athletic facilities as outlined by an athletic task force.

Updating technology in classrooms.

Reviewing seismic designs of the buildings.

In September of that year, the board launched Project Partnership, a community-based study of the school district needs. Over 100 community members were involved in the study.

Three committees looked at the school district's facilities, programs and finances.

The facilities committee said the district needed to build a new elementary school and a new middle school. The report also suggested Cape Girardeau should close Washington and May Greene Schools, revamp L.J. Schultz and look at future property investments.

Among recommendations from the committee studying school programs was a reduction in the number of transitions from one school to another for students.

The finance committee saw a need for capital improvements, including replacing Washington and May Greene Schools and adding classrooms to Jefferson School. The group suggested that a middle school and elementary school should be presented to voters separately.

On the April 1993 ballot the board asked voters for a 99 cent tax increase to build a middle school, an elementary school, an addition to Jefferson School, air condition the campuses, revamp seismic designs, and make other improvements.

Voters turned it down.

Over the summer, the board has scaled back the project and on Tuesday will ask voters to approve about half the package - the middle school and the addition to Jefferson.

In all, the building projects will cost $18.5 million. The middle school and related items will over $14 million. The Jefferson addition will cost $2.1 million.

The tax hike would generate an additional $1.3 million annually for the school district, which would be used to pay off the costs of construction.

It would also result in an additional $900,000 in state money for Cape Girardeau Public Schools as a result of the Outstanding Schools Act of 1993, which increased state funding for Missouri's school districts.

Under the law, about half of the money could be used for operation of the physical plant. The other half would go to instructional staff.

The tax hike measure on Tuesday's ballot has no sunset clause.

School officials said the tax hike would amount to an additional $1.09 a week or $58 a year for a property owner with a house valued at $58,300 the median price of a home in Cape Girardeau.

If approved, Washington and May Greene schools would likely be closed. Superintendent Neyland Clark said L.J. Schultz might be used as an elementary building. Redistricting is on the horizon.

Clark says building a middle school will impact many children in the district.

The middle school would house Cape Girardeau's sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders.

The two-level building is designed to accommodate 1,200 students, with 400 students in 16 classrooms in each grade. The building would have 163,000 square feet of instructional space, with a total of 48 classrooms.

The building design was based on having a clusters, or communities for each grade level.

The middle school would be built on a sloping site. The sixth grade would be on the lower level, and have its own entrance and exit.

Seventh- and eighth-grade students would be housed on the upper level, but the two grades would have completely separate instructional areas.

The building would include labs for such things as art and technology education.

As a panel of educators from the school district explained last week, a middle school provides a transition from elementary school to high school.

Children in elementary schools work in self-contained classrooms with one person teaching nearly all subjects. At the high school, students have six or seven different teachers, one for each course.

A middle school would use block scheduling. One teacher teaches several different subjects like reading, spelling and language arts. Then the student would change to another teacher who teaches science, math and social studies.

The number of teachers increases as a student progresses through the middle school.

Teachers work in interdisciplinary teams, each instructing the same group of students. A team of teachers plans together so science and language and math and social studies courses fit logically together, deal with the same theme or skills.

Another aspect of middle schools is exploratory courses. Students have a chance to take several courses like keyboarding, drama, industrial arts, during the year. By learning a little about a lot of subjects, a student might find an interest or talent to pursue.