Principal Transfer Decision Expected From Mcpherson

SchooTSÚpt. RíBruce McPherson will meet tomorrow morning with the eight Ann Arbor elementary school principáis whose transfers were announced last week to teil them whether the transfers have been rescinded. Public Information Officer William Stewart said the decisión will -also be announced to the media tomorrow morning. Last week's announcement of the principal transfers has touched off a storm of controversy, especially at two schools where the principáis had each served for nearly 20 years. Petition drives were launched by the Haisley and Burns Parks parent-teacher organizations to protest the transfers of Louise Ritsema, principal at Haisley for the past 18 years, and Marión Cranmore, Burns Park principal since 1953. The Haisley PTO says 754 signatures protesting the transfer of Miss Ritsema had been collected by 6 p.m. yesterday. The Burns Park PTO began its petition i drive Monday. Both PTOs plan to present the petitions and arguments against the transfers at tonight's Board of Education meeting at the Ann Arbor Public Library. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. An executive session of the Board of Education, which was closed to the press, was held last night to discuss the controversial principal transfers plus the proposed appointments of new assistant principáis at several junior high schools, according to School Board President Cecil Warner. The teachers and staff at Haisley School released a letter today which has been sent to McPherson also requesting that he reverse his "inhumane" decisión to transfer Miss Ritsema to Lawton School. "The fact that Miss Ritsema, the staff, and the community were neither involved nor notified of this change prior to the press release seems to us to be inhumane," the letter said. The Haisley staff also argued that "in this fastchanging world, children do need continuity in their lives; Louise Ritsema has provided that continuity." McPherson has also received a letter from Haisley PTO President Grant Breiner "condemning the lack of communications between the parties concerned" (in the transfers). "We feel that the concept of humaneness in education has been completely disregarded," Breiner said. Breiner also told McPherson that the Haisley PTO feels McPherson has "not accurately assessed the community feeling, and that this will result in a lack of confidence in future decisions which will be reflected in general lack of support in bonding and millage and other policies.-"