Only 10% Vote In Ypsilanti

YPSILANTI - Only 10 per cent of the Ypsilanti School District's registered voters went to the polls Monday to elect Gerald L. Jennings and Douglas J. Harris to four-year terms on the Ypsilanti Board of Education. The 1,705 voters a 1 s o approved the transfer of about $137,000 from the school district's debt retirement fund to the building and site fund by a 3-to-l margin. The proposition passed in all six precints, by a vote of 1,080 to 354. Jennings and Harris will replace retiring trustees Maxe A. Öbermeyer Jr. and Austin K. Norton. Neither sought reelection. Yesterday's voter turnout was considered extremely light. Between 2,000 and 4,000 voters out of the school district's 17,000 voters had been expected to go to the polls. Jennings, 36, a professor oí industrial education at Eastern Michigan University, led a slate of seven school board candidates with 1,053 votes. In second place with 545 votes was Harris, an EMU gradúate and industrial representative for ITT Industrial Automation and Systems División. Coming in a very close third, only fíve votes behind Harris, was Robert H. Sly, an industrial engineer. Sly polled 540 votes. Finishing in fourth place was Edward Salowitz, an employé of the University of Michigan Housing Office and chairman of the Ypsilanti Human Relations Commission. Salowitz received 523 votes. The fifth, sixth and seventh place finishers, respectively, were Jack Meivin Brown, a realty executive, w i t h 340 votes; Phillip E. Wells, an employé of the Motor Wheel Corp. with 210 votes, and Samuel Vitale, a mathematics teacher at Milan High School, with 79 votes. All of the vote totals are unofficial until certified by the county. Jennings, the top vote ter, has lived in Ypsilanti for eight years and has two children enroUed in the public schools. He has been a techmcal consultant on the industrial education program for the Ypsilanti Schools for the past three years. Jennings also is a consultant in curriculum for the state of Michigan. He has been a teacher for 15 years and representative of the Estabrook School ParentTeacher Association. ' Harris is president and executive board member of the Ypsilanti Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He is co-chairman of the Urban Redevelopment Commission, past member of the city Charter Revisión Study Commission, past member of the Senior Citizens Advisory Committee, past member of the Youth Commission and past member of the Familv Service Agency. The approval of the transfer of the $137,000 from the school district' s debt retirement fund to the building and site fund will have no effect on the millage rate currently levied on Ypsilanti School District residents. The money is accrued delinquent taxes and interest the district has collected on three separate bond issues dating back to the 1950's. Because the money was originally collected as part of a bonding issue, it was necessary to obtain voter approval before using the funds for another purpose. The bunds will be used for eight specific repair and installation projects at eight Ypsilanti schools and the Board of Education offices.