Board Of Education Candidates Speak On The Issues

Opinions on most eduactional problems that I have become public issues here in recent years I were voiced last night by most of the nine candidates for Ann Arbor's school board. They spoke at the traditional candidates' night sponsored at the high school by the League of Women Voters. I Nine candidates, eight present last night, are competing in the June 9 election for three vacant three-year terms on the school board. Ivan R. Kemp was absent. I Candidates present last night endorsed the I schools' much-discussed sex education and family I life programs, and reiterated their positions on the I money proposals appearing on the June 9 ballot. All candidates support the $4.9 million bonding I proposal for a fifth junior high school. Doubt that sending pupils by bus outside school I attendance districts nearest their homes has as I much educationál valué as improving "neighborhood I school" was voiced by all candidates present last I night. Candidates and their main comments on various issues are: I James W. Anderson Jr., 31, assistant manager of the Quarry photo department, former chairman of the education committee of the city's Human Relations Commission and former HRC vice chairman: Anderson called for "more contemporary vocational programs," expansión of the pre-school Head Start program, "more male instructors" with emphasis on "our commitment to hire more black teachers and administrators," steps toward remodeling of Mack, Angelí and Burns Park Schools, and continuation of "student involvment in matters affecting them." In response to audience questions, Anderson said the school board should "emphatically state and implement" a policy of recruiting black faculty and staff members. Dr. Ronald C. Bishop, 48, chief of medical services at the Veterans Administratio Hospital: The millage proposal is "the most important issue" facing voters, Bishop said, because it would I provide pay increases for teachers which "we are I obligated to meet." Failure to approve the 6.67 mili I proposal would probably mean fewer teachers, and I a "retrogressive" increase in the ratio of students I to teachers, and would require a renegotiation of I the teachers' master plan contract with undesirable I effects on staff morale and on recruiting, Bishop I predicted. j He urged "vigorous" recruiting to establish a "pool" of eligible Negro teachers and I tors, and "hiring on the basis of merit." John C. Cruz, 39, assistant supervisor of laboratory animal medicine at the University: j The "crucial" long-range issue facing local school officials is planning to lócate future schools I they can best serve the community, Cruz said. He expressed a dubious view of the idea, suggested by another candidate, of building a vocational high school here. "When I was in school I was told I was not college material and it took me four years to work my way out of a vocational high school and into college," Cruz declared. ; (ïëraTaT?otuëiDtSrpsïaënwrthe Lakeside I School Parent-Teacher Organization, sales manager for Godfrey Moving and Storage Co.: "No, I am not golng to vote for the 6.67 millage proposal. We can come back to the voters (in July) and ask for what we really need," Gottleib replied to a question from the audience. Gottleib called for major efforts to develop "alternative sources" of school financing, and called specifically for school officials "to face down the University . . . and get them to pay their fair ! share for youngsters the U-M is sending into our schools." He said 300 youngsters living in tax-free U-M housing attended local public schools last year and that "an additional 340" will attend next fall. He also noted that the closing of University School, beginning with elementary grades next month and concluding with junior high grades in 1970, means the U-M "is going to start using our schools for laboratories" while no longer creating a "balance" by absorbing several hundred local youngsters in University School. Henry Johnson, 32, director of group care and counseling at the W.J. Maxey Boys' Training School at Whitmore Lake: In addition to "more relevant programs" in vocational training, the school system should make major efforts to line up specific jobs and apprenticeships for non-college-bound students to step into after graduation, Johnson urged. "The training I can't be an end in itself." He called for "more black male instructors, I especially at the elementary level, to provide I models." He expressed hope that "other means than I bussing" will be developed for strengthening schools. I "I like the neighborhood school concept. I hope I Jones School can be restored." John H. Schneider, 41, co-owner of the Standard I station at N. Main and Catherine: Appearing as a candidate for the first time, I Schneider said he is opposed to the millage I posal and in favor of the bonding proposal. He suggests that when a third high school is I planned locally, serious consideration should be I given to making it a vocational school. Schneider said he does not claim expert I ledge of any particular área of education, but has a I jwide range of interests and attends school board I meetings regularly. i Mrs. Mary Jane Shoultz, 34, a consultant with I the U-M's Child Development Consultant Project I and former director of the WRAND Day Care I ter in Willow Run : : A desire to pursue policies that "distinguish I tween education and the school system," and to I I "protect" pupils from "the punishment of the I school system" was voiced by Mrs. Shoultz. She resisted the proposals of other candidates I for increased emphasis on vocational training, I ing that concept as "slave training." She I sized her view that each pupil "is as valuable as I the next. . . . The point is to give them a choice." Cecil W. Warner, 40, president of the Scarlett I Junior High School Parent-Teacher Organization, I and senior engineering administrator at Bendix I Aerospace Systems División, who finished a close' I fourth in a bid for one of three school board I vacancies last year: Opposition to the 6.67 millage proposal was I voiced by Warner on the basis of two factors: I creased revenue of $1,800,000 from an expanded tax I base, and an increased expenditure of $2,800,000 to I cover salary and fringe benefits commitments, an I additional 927 students, and improvement of the I special educational education and vocational I grams. Expenditure requirements coüld be satisfied I by the $1,800,000 increased revenue and 4.8 milis I stead of 6.67). . . ." Warner also called for greater efforts to serve I non-college-bound students, charging that such I students are being "cheated a little" in local schools, I partly because "an awful lot of equipment is sitting I around, not being used as it was intended." i