Hearing Reset For U, Schools

Michigan's Court of Claims has rescheduled, from tomorrow to April 13, a hearing on a case that is expected to determine if it is legal for the University to make payments in lieu of taxes to the Ann Arbor Board of Education. A class suit contending such payments are not legal is ing pursued by 21 residents of I U-M married student I ments. The hearing will be at 1:30 I p.m. April 13 in the Ingham I County Circuit Court in I son. U-M officials agreed last I spring, following negotiations I with local school officials, to I make annual payments of I about $252,000 in lieu of taxes I on behalf of public school I pils living in the U-M's 1,245 I tax-free apartments for I ried students and staff. Since Aug. 1, the U-M has I collected $6 monthly from I each family in its apartments I to cover about one-third of the I initial payment, but has heldi this money in escrow pending I a court test of the plan. Ear- lier this month, the Court of Claims formally ordered thel U-M to continue withholdingl payments pending a legal sel- tlement. The plan developed afterl the U-M closed University I School, formerly a U-M 1 catión School laboratory, I which previously took pupils I on a ■ tuition basis roughly I equal in number to public I school pupils living in I free U-M housing. School Supt. W. Scott Westerman Jr. states that the proposed $252,000 payment would fall short of actual costs of school services for pupils from the U-M's tax-free apartments. Attorneys in the case are the U-M's general counsel, Roderick K. Daane, and I thur Carpenter of Ann Arbor, I representing the apartment I residents. Both are seeking I summary judgments in favor I of their clients. The 1 uling to April 13 was an 1 tion of the court itself , and was not a request of either lawyer. __ 1