Jefferson City Public Schools move closer to November vote

Aug. 25. That's the deadline for the Jefferson City Public Schools' Board of Education to tell the Cole and Callaway County clerks they want to hold a special election in November.

President John Ruth said Friday that board members are still considering an election that day, to ask voters to approve building a new elementary school and expanding Callaway Hills.

The board's ad hoc facilities committee - Ruth, Steve Bruce, Michael Couty and Pam Murray - met Thursday to talk more about that idea, based on one of the Long Range Facility Planning Committee's recommendations from last fall.

"The recommendation from that (Long Range) committee was to bring online a 12th elementary building, recommending that it be placed on the east side," Ruth said, "and recommending that renovations be made to Callaway Hills, to add about 200-220 students, to alleviate the pressures at North."

The elementary schools' discussion is in addition to the better-known discussion about building a second high school.

Ruth said the ad hoc committee will look at that question during a separate meeting in the coming weeks.

In January 2011, the board bought more than 11 acres on East McCarty Street, just north of Lewis and Clark Middle School.

The East McCarty site could hold a building with a larger capacity than the land-locked East School can handle currently.

So, Ruth noted, the board is thinking about making the proposed new elementary building the "new" East School, then converting the current East building to a ""school of choice,' that would have a slightly different curriculum - we don't know exactly what that would be today - but primarily based on an enrichment program that mirrors our Project Lead the Way, which is a very STEM-heavy," he said.

STEM means a focus on science, technology, engineering and math, Ruth said, adding, "Another term that you're seeing is STEAM, where the "A' is for Arts."

Ruth noted the board has not made any final decision about that proposal, but has asked district administrators to study what elementary-level programs could be taught at East that could interest students from throughout the district.

That, he said, would allow the current East building to be used as a specialty school attracting students from the other elementary buildings, reducing their population pressures by a little bit - if voters approve building the new elementary school.

Ruth and Superintendent Brian Mitchell both said last week they're not thinking in terms of a school only for "gifted" students.

"I think there's a concern that it ought to be, not necessarily, ability-based," Ruth explained, "but desire-based."

Mitchell, who is leaving this summer for a job in Des Moines, Iowa, told the News Tribune on Friday, "I think it's awesome, but the challenge will be that - in order to help alleviate crowded classes everywhere (in the district) - you're going to have, most likely, a designated number of spots from each" current elementary building, so there's a balance of students from throughout the district attending the school.

"You still may end up with more folks who would like to have their kids in that setting than what you can satisfy," Mitchell added.

If adopted, such a program also could help attract more girls and minorities to the STEM fields - "because you fuel their interests earlier on," Mitchell said.

Mitchell and Ruth noted the Columbia and Springfield districts already offer such an alternative school concept.

Ruth said he's in regular contact with Larry Linthacum, who succeeds Mitchell as Jefferson City's superintendent on July 1, but Linthacum hasn't asked anybody to slow the discussions.

The Long Range Facilities Planning Committee estimated a new, east side elementary school would cost more than $13.78 million, and adding 10 classrooms to Callaway Hills - for another 220 students - would cost almost $5.51 million.

Even though holding a vote this November would be a special election, with the district bearing all the costs if nothing else were placed on the same ballot, Ruth said it could be worth it.

"The architects actually think we could be in the school, and using it, by the fall of 2017," if voters approved the project this November.

Also, the current East building, which is getting a complete facelift this summer, then could be used immediately for whatever new program it would hold.

However, if the issue is on next April's ballot instead of November, that five-month difference would mean the new school couldn't open until the middle of the 2017-18 school year at the earliest - "which is so messy," Mitchell said. "It would be too difficult to leave East unused for half a year.

"It would be much cleaner to make all of those plans (happen) at the beginning of a school year."

A November election also would avoid the confusion of being on the ballot with other candidates or issues, Ruth said.

"I've heard some people say, "Let's make it its own issue,'" he explained. "And going in November would certainly give it the chance to stand on its own merit."

Thursday's meeting was the first for the ad hoc committee, but was the board members' second discussion in two weeks.

Comments at both meetings suggested - at some point in the coming years - the district also may need to consider building a third middle school.

The current middle schools - Thomas Jefferson and Lewis and Clark - opened in 1993 and, Ruth noted, were built the last time district patrons approved a tax-increase bond issue.

However, Ruth and Mitchell noted, the board has made no decision on that part of the long-term plan.

Voters in 2013 rejected bond issue and tax increase proposals that would have built one new high school complex just east of Missouri 179 and north of the new St. Mary's Hospital.

That plan also included money for a new, east side elementary school.

However, Ruth said, many people have told him they didn't understand that, given all the debate about the high school proposal.

That's another reason, he said, to ask voters to consider the east side and Callaway Hills proposal separately from other issues.

He expects the board will make a final decision at its August meeting.