School Policies Called Outdated

Stating that he "is a ware we are in the midst of a revolution" among students and all young people, Ann Arbor School Supt. W. Scott Westerman last night met with a committee of concerned parents who call themselves the Secondary Schools Improvement Group to discuss a variety of problems that presently exist in the city's school system. The meeting, held in the basement of the First Unitarian Church and attended by approximately 85 parents and teachers, was intended to allow citizens to air their complaints about Board of Education policies and attitudes which "are essentially those of another era," as a group letter to the board had previously stated. Joseph Wehrer, acting chairman of the committee, which is urging greater responsiveness by the board to individual student needs, opened the meeting by reciting a list of general grievances against the board and certain school administrations, and called for reassessment in sucli áreas as student rights, school rules and learning programs. Westerman, along with Dr. Sam Sniderman, assistant superintendent for instruction, then responded by admitting that definite problems did exist, and that many answers would have to be found, but that the board is currently doing the best it can under the circumstances. i Several parents in the audience "ventilated long-standing frustrations," as one group member said, by demanding that Westerman investígate a number of abuses by school officials that "support consensus life styles and attitudes," as the formal letter also stated. One parent made the objection that his son had been "kicked out of the (school) system like a card in an IBM card reader white in seventh grade." Others spoke of the I purpose of suspending students, I giving students more say in I matters that concern them, and I widening the communication I channels between I tors and parents. Much of the discussion centered about the system causing an increasing number of students to drop out of school and never complete their education. Westerman replied that the board is "struggling" to form I interesting and innovative 1 grams and courses that appeal I to today's youth and will help I keep them in school. The meeting continued for I more than four hours as the I group attempted to suggest new I values and rules for schools I they said more closely 1 spond to contemporary ■ tional goals and student inter-B ests, ; ■