Teachers To Study Negro History

An in - service traimng program to better acquaint Ann Arbor public school teachers with Negro history will begin next month, according to a communication received by the Board of Education yesterday. William T. Nimroth, social studies coördinator, and Milo White, chairman of the inservice project, have announced that a program of six weekly lectures, entitled "The Negro in the History of America," has been prepared in cooperation with the history department of the University. The course is considered necessary to better acquaint Ann Arbor history teachers with the history of the Negro since this subject will be incorporated into regular American history course at Pioneer and Huron High Schools next fall. A special one-semester course is being offered during the coming semester for Pioneer seniors who will be unable to take the regular course next September. Nimroth and White, in their announcement, "strongly urged" all American history teachers to enroll in the program. The course will begin Feb. 6 and continue to March 19. Profs. William Freehling and Sam Warner Jr. will be lecturers for the course. MeetWith Citizen Units The Board of Education met yesterday afternoon during a briefing session with two more of its citizens' advisory committees - Special Projects and the Jtecreation Advisory Board - in the third such meeting scheduled with the eight citizens' committees. During the first session, the resignations of the former chairman and three of her committee members from the Special Projects Committee in September were discussed, along with the current "inoperative" status of the group. Mrs. Betty Kitchel, former chairman, and her three members resigned, largely in protest of the board's handling of its recommendations for attaining racial imbalance in local schools. Currently, the committee has no chairman. The Special Projects C o mmittee also requested that a new charge be given to the group, since it is currently inoperative because it feels its original charges have been completed. The Special Projects Committee is the only one of the eight citizens' committees which is presently inoperative. School Board President Hazen J. Schumacher Jr. t o 1 d the nine members present that a new charge would be developed for the committee as soon as possible. He asked that ideas for such a charge be submitted by the group. "We do want you to sta y in existence . . ( and get you going again," he said. He also asked for recommendations for a new chairman of the group. A number of items were discussed with the members of the Recreation Advisory Board, including methods of appointing new mernbers to the board, the possible sale of Jones School, budgetary problems and the need for a new cultural arts center. Chairman David T. Farrington gave a preliminary presentation and answered many of the trustees' questions. Recreation Department Director Charles E. Oxley told of his staff's concerns that Jones School might be sold, and raised questions a b o u t relocation problems. Oxley also spoke of the department's "relatively t i g h t" budget, and expressed the hope that it wouldn't be cut in the event of financial problems of the board. Mrs. Barbara Cartwright, cultural arts specialists for the Recreation Department, and Mrs. Mary Pratt, senior citizens' specialist, told the trustees of the need for a separate facility for the culture arts, particularly for junior theatre and senior citizens' activities. The possibility of renovating a 50-year-old barn located in Burns Park was mentioned for this purpose. The barn is owned by the City of Ann Arbor, and would have to be donated to the Recreation Department. Mrs. Pratt said that a request for the donation and for renovation funds would be brought TTp' at a luture Uty umncü meeting. Other Items In Brief The search for a new superintendent of schools was continued by the Board of Education yesterday during an executive session which began at 4 p.m. During the session, the list of candidates (approximately 35 had originally applied for the post) was narrowed down to 10. The trustees have scheduled a special meeting for tomorrow afternoon, when they will attempt to cut the list further, probably to between three and six candidates. Exhaustive interviews with the finalists will then be conducted. The term of Acting Supt. W. Scott Westerman Jr. expires Aug. 31, 1968. - - . n n the Practical Nurse Training Center this evening was approved last night by the trustees. Ceremonies will take place tonight at 8 p.m. in the Pioneer High School Auditorium. o o Trustees Charles H. Good and Francés Felbeck were the only trustees who did not attend the nearly eight hours of briefing, executive and regular sessions last night. The cost consultant firm of Colbert and Karafilis met with the Board of Education last night in executive session to acquaint the trustees with their methods of operation. Westerman recommended earlier this month that the two men by hired by the school board to assist in holding down costs and keeping things on schedule during future construction projects. Last night's meeting was scheduled to enable the tees to question the men on various aspects of their work. The trustees expressed a great deal of interest in retaining the firm, and a formal decisión on the employing the firm is expected shortly. 1 u The Board of Education unanimously approved the quarterly f inancial audit and the building fund I tures report. o o 1 Three a d d i t i o n s to the teaching staff-, as well as three resignations and one leave of absence, were approved by the trustees. Resigning were Mrs. S h e i I a Bates, an elementary French teacher; Mrs. Marie Inniss, first-grade teacher at Thurston, and Mrs. Noryne Wayne, third-grade teacher at Thurst o n. Hamilton Morningstar, industrial arts teacher at Tappan, was granted a leave of absence for the second semester of this school year. o o The names of 56 women who will be graduated from