House Plan For Schools Criticized

Trustee ecu Warner angruy aemanaed that a tentative "house plan" for junior high students be redone to include more facts before he would give his approval. The "house plan" report was presented with slides by Dr. Sam Sniderman, assistant supeintendent , of instruction at last night's school board meeting. He explained the operational aspects of a concept of a "school-within-a-school." "As an attempt to get away from big schools, the house plan would use small units of students with their own administrators and counselors divided within the building. But Trustee Warner feit Dr. Sniderman's presentation was inadequate and said: "I'm concerned about approving a concept before I know the facts." He then asked Sniderman to present the board with a model of the house plan using an example of one of the junior high schools here. "You don't just show some pictures on a screen," said Warner loudly, "and if you can't do more than that you won't get my support, in fact I will fight your proposal." Warner's request for additional information was supported by Trustee Paul Carrington and included the desire for details on cost, staff, enrollment and type of modification for the buildings. Trustee Henry Johnson supported the plan, but added, "Maybe we could see some material on this concept being implemented at other school districts that would compare to Ann Arbor." The board was reminded by School Supt. W. Scott Westerman Jr. that this concept was part of the Humaneness in Education" report they had approved earlier in the year. "It's easy to back off from these innovative plans now that they are before you for implementation although you agreed to the humaneness report," Westerman said. I Trustee Johnson then said: "Let's not I wrap all these innovative ideas up in a I blanket and wave the "Humaneness" I report in front of them. Why don't we I just consider what is good for 1 dren." Johnson feit that the report was being used too much as a defense and in some instances it caused unfavorable reactions for some people. According to Sniderman, the house plan would próvide more decision-making for the students who would be in small groups. Students would remain in one geographic area for the major portion of the day and four teachers would work as a team to provide the day's activities. - I