Don't Cut Teachers, 5 Principals Plead

Ann Arbor principáis carne last night to the Board of Education bearing requests. Before they addressed the board with petitions to retain or add teachers, Board President Theodore Heusel told the five principáis and director of the Instructional Media Center that the board would not take action on their requests. The appointments are administrativë matters, according to Heusel, and should be left up to the superintendent. "The board has been accused of going over the administrator's head," Heusel said. He was referring to the opening of Pandora's box last week when the board voted to desígnate Clinton II a special category school, thus insuring it a pupilteacher ratio of no higher than 24 to 1. The recommendation was made by Principal Haywood Richardson and acted upon by the board in spite of comments by the administration that giving the school the special designation could throw the budget askew. At the time Clinton II requested the special categroy designation on the basis that some of the students have economie and learning problems, the principal also requested the board replace a teacher who had left but hadn't been replaced. Before the teacher left, the studentteacher ratio was 21.9 to 1. With reorganization stemming from the teacher leaving and not being replaced, Clinton II would have a 24.6 to 1 student-teacher ratio. The board did not act upon his request. Richardson, Fred Stegath of Lakewood, Herman Steinmen of Clinton I Elementary School, and Milton Riggs, principal of Eberwhite, all requested retention of one teacher on the basis that their enrollments would be increasing during the school year. The four schools were scheduled to reorganize about two weeks ago because their enrollment was lower than had been anticipated and their studentteacher ratios feil short of 28 to 1. They were each to desígnate one teacher as unassigned who would later fill vacant positions. A new directive was issued Nov. 2 by the administration to reverse the process and put teachers who were scheduled to be unassigned back in their classrooms. That directive came following the board's action on the Clinton II petition last week. Supt. R. Bruce McPherson asked the principáis who requested retention or addition of teachers to come to the board with their requests. This was news to some of the board members who found out when the point was mentioned by a principal. s Jerome Tillman, principal at Mack Elementary, also asked for a helping teacher and school social worker, to work no less than one-half time. Rolland Billings, director of the Instructional Media Center, requested an appointment for his office be filled. He said it was in the process of being filled before a freeze on new positions was issued in October. Some of the principáis who requested a retention of personnel said they had consulted with the personnel department early in September when they realized their anticipated enrollments h a d n ' t materialized. One month later they were told to reorganize. Stanley Zubel, assistant superintendent for personnel, said part of the economics involved in the teacher reassignments was a cut in his office's budget between Sept. 29 and Oct. 13, when the administration realized it would have some $530,000 less than it had anticipated. The $530,000 loss was a miscalculation in the delinquent tax funds to be received from the county. Zubel said as part of his effort to balance the budget, his office is supposed to make up $128,000. School administrators waited until the fourth Friday count to determine which schools' enrollments weren't what had been anticipated. A school spokesman said a more effective system of assigning teachers will be used next year to avoid these problems.