By ANN PIERCEALL

Herald-Whig Staff Writer

MONROE CITY, Mo. -- Voters in the Monroe City R-1 School District will decide April 8 whether to issue $1.2 million in bonds to make facility improvements, primarily to the district's aging high school.

The proposed improvements at the high school include modernizing the science classroom, upgrading bleachers in the gym and renovating the exterior walls and cafeteria.

Superintendent Kirk Eidson said the proposed improvements stem from the district Comprehensive School Improvement Plan, a state mandated plan that is updated every five years. He said one of the committees created to devise the plan looked at long-term facility needs.

The 20-person committee spent time last year touring each of the district's buildings, walking the grounds and then prioritizing what the top needs were.

"We found some things at the top of the list were in excess of what we can do in our annual budget," he said.

Eidson told the committee those items could either be moved lower on to the list or the district could try to pass a bond issue to pay for them.

The committee voted overwhelmingly to try and get the improvements done.

Approval of the bonds will mean an estimated 15-cent increase in the district's property taxes. The money would go into the debt service fund and could be used only for paying back the bonds.

Eidson said, if passed, the measure would restore some of the money the district has rolled back to property owners under the Hancock Amendment in recent years. The current tax levy is at $3.9388 per $100 assessed valuation, compared to $4.964 per $100 assessed valuation voters approved in 2001.

The 15-cent increase would translate into an additional $14.25 a year, or $1.19 a month, in taxes for a homeowner whose home is assessed at $50,000.

Eidson said while the district's middle school was renovated in 1996, the high school has seen few improvements since it was built in 1964. Many of the improvements planned will provide a safer environment for students, staff and visitors, or save money for the district.

They include:

* Building a new science room. Plans call for gutting the current classroom and replacing aging and leaky gas lines, aging electrical wiring and putting in modern science equipment.

* Replacing bleachers in the gym. The current ones are increasingly unstable and "wobbly."

* Adding a room to the Ag building to separate the gas engine class from the welding class. Eidson that today's building codes call for separating such rooms because a welding spark can cause gas fumes to ignite.

* Replacing windows in the cafeteria with treated, double-paned glass, as well as upgrading heating and adding air conditioning.

* Replacing the high school's outer walls, which now are simple panels with no insulation.

"We probably waste $20,000 to $30,000 a year that we'll be able to reduce in energy costs when we replace those walls with some with insulation," Eidson said.

High School Principal Chris Redmon agreed.

"You can sit in our classrooms and feel the wind blowing in on a cold day. That's no way to learn," Redmon said.

He said from a teaching standpoint the science classroom has the greatest need. Nearly everything in it, from furniture to equipment, dates to the building's construction.

"It limits our teachers' ability and students' opportunities," he said.

Redmon said he has "a lot of faith" in the Monroe City community.

"When they see a true need and know all the facts they support a project," he said. "Our school really needs some improvements made. By addressing these bigger projects (through the bond issue) we can divert some of those other funds to pay for smaller projects at our other schools."

-- apierceall@whig.com/(573) 221-5879.