After years of dealing with litter-strewn lawns, loud music and illegal parking, Dan Rau couldn't have been happier to see Central High School pack up and move to its new location at 1000 Silver Springs Road.

"God bless Matt Kiefner and Kiefner Bros. Construction for getting the new high school finished on time so all those kids and their problems could go somewhere else," said Rau, who lives in the 1700 block of Luce Street near the former high school campus.

The neighborhood's problems stemmed from a lack of on-campus parking at the former Caruthers Avenue campus, which forced a large number of students to park along the streets surrounding the school.

Thanks to the new $18-million high school and a district-wide grade reconfiguration this year, Rau and other residents of that area say they have finally been able to reclaim their neighborhood this year.

"We lived in a parking lot, and we dealt with all those problems that come with a parking lot," Rau said. "We have a nice, quiet neighborhood now, and I'm very relieved."

The former high school is now Central Junior High. The building houses seventh- and eighth-graders, so the parking problem has been eliminated. The former junior high building has become a middle school for fifth- and sixth-graders.

With a closed-campus lunch policy, the litter problem was solved too.

"People who live in those neighborhoods should be very happy nowadays because we have no students who drive," said junior high principal Lee Gattis.

"It's like living in a whole new neighborhood," said Betty Hopen, who has lived in the same house on Luce Street for 50 years.

She said during the early years after the high school opened in 1953, parking wasn't a problem because not many students drove to school.

But for the past 30 years, she had come to dread the start of new school years and the onslaught of vehicles and trash.

Hopen said she and her three daughters constantly picked up discarded cigarette packages, soda cans and food wrappers from the street in front of their house.

"Once or twice every school year I'd have to call the police because someone had parked blocking my driveway," Hopen said.

Any current traffic problems around the former high school campus are minimal, Gattis said.

"The only problem they might have is when parents drop off or pick up their kids," Gattis said. "But even then, most of them park on the campus, not on the street."

cchitwood@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 128