Oakland Aide In Race

Henry C. Alting, manager ' the división of field operations for the Oakland County Commission on Economie Opportunity, has announced his didacy for the Ann A r b o r Board of Education in t h e June 11 election. In announcing his candidacy, Alting said: "As a parent, taxpayer, and concerned educator I believe that I can serve all of the people in the Ann Arbor School district on the school board critically and constructively. "My wife, Patricia, and I live in one of the far corners of the school district and have three children in the Ann Arbor Public Schools; one at Community High; one at Pioneer II; and one at Carpenter Elmcntary. "Basically, I will work to restore the confidence of our citizens in our local school system. Specifically, my emphasis will be in the following areas: "First, to restore the level of school board meetings to a more open and honest system of discussion, analysis and decisión making to improve the quality of education in our schools for all of our students. This will include an emphasis on citizens input in the school board' s deliberations and a permanent open invitation to the local press and all other media to have access to all of the school board meetings- formal as well as informal. "Secondly, the school board should impose criteria of strict accountability on our well-paid school administrators. Our administrators ought to implemeut a leadership role within a framework of stated objectives and goals and be evaluated at the end of each school year. Administrators too often tend to look the other way or hide in secure and isolated offices when complex problema erupt around them in the schools and leave students without an guidance or examples of leadership. "Tbirdly, the school board should be willing to fairly and. squarely evalúate and reassess our current innovative programs, such as Community High and Pioneer II, and be willing to face up to the task of implem enting changes and, if proven successful, to implement such ideas in all of our schools to serve all of the people and not just a few select areas in Anh Arbor. "Fourthly, the school board should encourage the development, implementation and evaluation of dynamic concepts contributing to quality education. For example, we should encourage the Open Class Room and the High In,'tensity Learning System at Carpenter Elementary School. "Fifthly, the' school board should exert a leadership tion to specifically and clearly outline goals to make changes in schools in a constructive and creative way. Such goals shouli? become clear directions for the administration to follow and be evaluated on. "Generally, I am alarmed and distressed by the increasing alienation of parents, teachers, and students. This trend is caused by a seemingly increasing burgeoning, school administration bureaucracy cloaked in jargon and mechanistic rules and procedures which tends to keep parents away from actively! i participating in the system. This appears to mate tne meohanics of running a school district so complex and intricate that the average taxpayer cannot comprehend nor particípate anymore, but only school administrators seem to be able to opérate it in some mysterious way." Alting has been a resident of the Ann A r b o r area since 1960, with an interruption of three years in Kentucky to administer several training and technical assistance programs for the Office of Economie Opportunity. Alting, his wife and their three children live at 4880 Grandview in Pittsfield Township, which is within the Ann Arbor District. Mrs. Alting has been active in preschool activities in Willow Run where she was the founder of the Willow Run , sociation for Community Development Day Care Center in 1965. Alting did his undergraduate work at Pace College in New York City and received a ma ster of arts degree in education f rom the University of Michigan. He has done post gradúate work in communityadult education in the U-M School of Education towards a doctoral degree.