YULE ART AT SCOTT CITY: STUDENTS TO MAKE AGENCY'S CHRISTMAS CARDS

SCOTT CITY -- Students at Scott City schools have been selected to design the 1991 Christmas greeting cards for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Superintendent Bob Brison said the school was selected to design the cards by Robert Bartman, Missouri commissioner of education. Last year the task was awarded to the Stix School for the Performing Arts in St. Louis, Brison said.

"We feel like it's a real honor for our students to be asked to do this," Brison said. "Student interest in doing the cards has been really high."

Lynn Taylor, art instructor for the elementary school, said students will turn in their designs by Oct. 1. After that, she, Brison and other teachers, including high-school art instructor Roger Allgood, will decide which designs will be submitted to the state.

One or two cards will be selected from each class to be submitted, Taylor said.

Brison said two or three designs will be picked by the state to be used on the cards. These will be reproduced onto hundreds of cards that will be sent from the education department to educators and others throughout the United States, he said.

The printed cards will bear the name of the school on the back and will include the student's name, Brison said.

Taylor, who has taught at Scott City for 15 years, said no sayings or verses will appear on the cards, and the designs are seasonal and do not make references to the religious aspects of the holiday.

"Those are the guidelines the state gave us," she said.

Most of the designs created so far by the students consist of Christmas trees and santas, Taylor said. Students are using everything from crayons to markers to water-color paint, depending on their grade level, to create the cards, she said.

Kindergarten students are using crayons, but other elementary students are using multi-colored markers to create their cards. High School students are using colored pencils, Taylor said.

"It's going to be really hard to choose just two or three designs," Taylor said. "All the students are trying to do a really good job."

Some classes are already finished with their designs, she said.

Brison said the state arbitrarily picks a school each year to design the cards, and it's the first time Scott City schools have been chosen.