FORMER VO-TECH BUILDING IS PUT TO NEW USES

Cape Girardeau School District administrators should be applauded for creating a most sensible plan for utilization of the old vocational-technical center on North Clark Street.

Most classes formerly conducted there are moving to a new, state-of-the-art Career and Technology Center that proudly overlooks Interstate 55 near Cape Girardeau's western edge.

Construction technology students will renovate the old building to make it ideal for Board of Education employees -- currently cramped in nearby quarters better suited for a small business -- plus community programs such as Caring Communities and Missouri Mentoring Partnership. Using students for the work will train them while saving money, and the district will receive income from the rent-paying agencies.

The current board of education office building is for sale, and that money will be used to offset $150,000 in renovation costs at the former vo-tech center.

Such fiscal responsibility should be reassuring to district taxpayers.