School Survey Finds Major Needs

Almost two-thirds of Missouri’s school buildings are at least thirty years old and one in eight is at least 70 years old. The state education department has surveyed the 21-hundred public school buildings in Missouri and says most of them were not designed for year-around use or the internet age. More than one in five buildings is rated less than adequate by local school officials. Three-fourths of Missouri’s school districts are using trailers as classrooms. The survey says almost 400 districts are using more than 11-hundred trailers to meet their space needs. The department estimates it will cost more than four-billion dollars to improve security, make buildings more accessible to people with handicaps, make them usable for all-day kindergarten, air condition them, and wire them for the internet.