Change In Junior High Boundary Is Delayed

I w j " y Approval of a boundary change which would affect 71 Dixboro School área pupils who attend Scarlett Junior High School was delayed last night by the Ann Arbor Board of Education. A number of Dixboro parents attended the meeting and presented the trustees with a petition "strongly urging" the board not to approve the propos al to transfer the students in question from Scarlett to Tappan Junior High next f all. The boundary change has been suggested because of anticipated crowding of Scarlett until the proposed fifth junior high school opens- hopefully in September of 1971. According to the proposal, the incoming seventh graders and eighth graders next fall who would have attended Scarlett would be bused to Tappan. They would remain at Tappan until the opening of the fifth Junior high, when they would be transferred there. Students who will be ninth graders at Scarlett next Fall would be given the option of attending either Scarlett or Tappan for tfie 1969-70 school year. Starting in September of 1970, however, all of the seventh, eighth and ninth graders from the área would be assigned to Tappan until the fifth junior high opens. The Dixboro petition said it was "unfair to place this adjustment upon children who have been forced by school board action in the past to endure many hardships." The parents also said they feit the recommendation was based on "expediency rather than any educational advantage." School Supt. W. Scott Westerman Jr. assured the parents the present Scarlett eighth graders would have the option of attending either Scarlett or Tappan next year. Westerman also told the ents the boundary change was recommended "without enthusiasm," but said the administration feit this course was the "least destructive." He said if the Dixboro students were allowed to remain at Scarlett by using more portable classrooms, the cost would be about $1,000 per pupil for the additional space.