The Columbia Board of Education yesterday gave the district the green light to build a new high school on an 80-acre tract east of the city despite concerns that the property isn’t suitable for the building.

Chase

"We’re not going to find property with infrastructure all ready to go," board President Karla DeSpain said. "Anywhere we place this school will need infrastructure because of the nature of the size of the land."

The property, partially donated by Turner Vemer, is located at South Rangeline and New Haven roads, about five miles outside the city limits.

John McCormick, who lives at 3414 S. Rangeline Road, told the board that the district originally planned to build a third major high school in north Columbia. Had the Vemer land "not become available, you would have found property in the northern part of the city," he said.

He and other residents also pointed to the inadequate roads, including Route WW.

"As a parent with a 16-year-old high school driver and soon to have grandchildren going to that high school, I’m concerned that road improvements need to be in place before kids get on that highway," Carol Reidinger said.

Although Chase said she couldn’t guarantee improvements would be made, historically, she said, "the city and county has worked with the school district to ensure student and staff safety."

McCormick also questioned the quality of the water in the area, which sits inside Public Water Supply District 9 boundaries. He pointed to a water quality report that showed high levels of radium.

Water district manager Roger Ballew said a treatment plant that will reduce those levels will be up and running by the time a school would open.

McCormick’s wife, Barbara McCormick, said the district should have had a public forum before approving the location. "This decision is too important to exclude the public," she said.

School board member Jan Mees asked whether the board could delay the vote, but Chase said a delay would upset the entire construction timetable.

The high school is expected to open in the fall of 2010. Vemer, a former Boone County farmer who now lives in Arizona, said he hopes to be on hand for the groundbreaking.

Vemer asked the district to name the school after his late wife, Elizabeth Turner Vemer, but it was not a condition of the sale. Assistant Superintendent Lynn Barnett said the district would recognize Elizabeth Vemer "in an appropriate manner, which could include naming a facility within the high school campus after her."

A new elementary school is planned to open one year earlier, but the district has not yet selected a site.

Meanwhile, committees that will help design both schools and redraw district boundaries spent about an hour this morning reviewing their responsibilities and the timetables for the construction projects.

The elementary redistricting committee will begin work in September, and the high school redistricting group will start work in January, said Don Ludwig, who will chair the enrollment committees.

Alison Angoff contributed to this article.

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