Board To Reconsider Clinton Pairing

Proposais for racial and socio-economic balance and busing for the Clinton school area triggered an emotional discussion which led to a decisión to reconsider a pairing plan and the walkout of Trustee Robert Conn during Wednesday night's. Board of Education meeting. The board unanimously defeated a recommöhdation from School Supt. R. Bruce McPherson for a ma'gnet plan for the Clinton II facility, and decided to reeonsider a propos al for pairing Clinton I and Clinton II this fall at its next meeting. Before this decisión, however, Conn told the group that Ann Arbor was a hypocritical place and the school board should not be responsible for the wrongdoings of other people regarding racial balance in housing patterns. "I don't want our kids hurt any sooner than they have to be . . . I didn't build the houses. That's somebody else's responsibility," said Conn. "We seem to want to put a screen up around this one community. Either we start doing some thing about opening this school for next f 7 v eMüi fall or we contorne playing games and when you stop playing around 111 be back," snapped Conn as he abruptly left the room. The trustees sat in stunned silence for only a few seconds, then Trustee Henry Johnson said, "This is the most closedminded group of people I h a v e ever seen." Responding to Conn's remarks, Johnson said that the board was responsible and that the courts would prove them responsible. "Instead of keeping kids sweet and innocent, we're keeping them sweet and ignorant. M o n e y is not the issue, it is whether or not we provide a quality education for everyone and not continue to let kids come into junior high school with stereotype and racist ideas that result in having a fist upside a jaw," Johnson said. Trustees Paul Carrington and Ronald Bishop both said the issue was whether the board wanted to do what was right and equitable and best for the children. "I stand for fairness and I don't feel that any other plan except pairing will insure this," said Bishop. Carrington also said that all the other options were not viable, especially cause of present budget restrictions. He said he didn't think they would work and that the board should reconsider the pairing plan. Presenting other alternatives at t h e meeting, Board President Cecil Warner commented on two plans, one w h i c h would provide a racial mix and another which would not. But both plans were criticized by board members and Aan Arbor Education Association President Anne Enderby. Under one plan, 69 students would be bused from south of 1-94 expressway to the present Clinton School for a total cost of $6,900 for busing. Warner's other plan dividing the two communities with the 1-94 expressway did not provide a balance between the two areas. "I can't believe that the Clinton community would let you split them up like that," said Miss Enderby, who also commented along with Johnson against the fact that the plans provided for one-way I busing from south of 1-94. Saying he was concerned over racial and socio-economic balance in the schools, Warner said: "Mixing kids up doesn't make them learn any better. They don't learn by osmosis." But Carrington interrupted him, saying "Kids learn to get along with each other through mixed schools and they don't just learn from teachers, kids learn from each other." Johnson said it isn't just the black students who benefit, but there are a lot of things whites can learn from blacks, Because of the overcrowded situation at Clinton, a new school was approved by voters to be built in the same attendance area. It is expected to be completed by September, 1973. However, in the interim it is necesary to house the excess Clinton students in a temporary facility for the 1972-73 school year. This temporary facility is being erected on Stone School Road south of the 1-94 expressway and is expected to house about 360 students. Because the two schools will serve the same group now attending Clinton, there was a great deal of concern that the two schools have a similar racial and socio-economic makeup, I To accomplish this, a plan presented to - - the board by McPherson several months I ago would have paired the two units and I assigned pre-school and grades K-2 to one unit and grades 3-5 to the other unit, but this was rejected by the board on Feb. 16. Children living south of 1-94 expressway, aecording to school data, are more often found to be black and living in lowincome housing than their counterparts living north of the exprèssway. The recommendation of a magnet plan was the superintendent' s second attempt to provide a racial and socio-economic balance within this controversial school attendance area. The magnet plan was designed to attract students to the Clinton II temporary facility by having distinctly different programs including individualized instruction, additional stafting, supplementary material and multiple programs. Parents would have had the option of selecting either the original Clinton I or the Clinton II facility with the magnet program.