Vote On Career Center Set For Jan. 22

Washtenaw intermedíate School District (WISD) voters wil] be asked to approve a one-mill charter millage for building and opecating a career center Jan. 22. The WISD Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday night to cali an election for voters in the 10 local school districts within the WISD to approve the $7.6 million center. The charter millage would be split in the following manner: .29 mili for -stfucííion'arfcl .71 miíí m optín expenses. The program at the career center would include occupational preparation for students who plan to enter the labor market immediately upon graduation, supplemental programs for college bound youths, remedial instruction for special education and handicapped children and adult programs needed for graduation requirements. Students, primarily llth and 12th graders, would attend the career center half days. The other half days would be spent taking classes in their local districtsJ The center is expected to serve 2,400 students, abput 30 per cent of the lOth through 12th graders in the county. Recommended by the Washtenaw County Superintendents Association, the proposed career center would be operated by the WISD. A site for the center has notbeenselected. Nine of the 10 local districts are supporting the proposition: Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Willow Run, Lincoln Consolidated, Milan, Manchester, Saline, Dexter and Chelsea. Only Whitmore Lake opposes the career center. Nick A. Ianni, superintendent, warned the five WISD Board of Education members it may be difficult to win voter approval for the proposed center. The difficulty is enhanced, he said, because the Ann Arbor school district is having its own millage election Nov. 19. The Ann Arbor Board of Education decides tonight what will be on that ballot. The trustees are expected to ask for a 6.67 mili renewal plus one mili for improvements and renovations of buildings and equipment. " In previous intermedíate school district elections, Ianni said, Ann Arbor voters have cast 60 to 70 per cent of the total vote. "The issue will probably be decided in the Ann Arbor school district," Ianni said. Ianni said the career center is "a good proposition. Whether the electorate is ready for it I'm not sure. " He added vocational education centers have traditionally been difficuljt to sell to university communities. Only 12 Michigan intermedíate school districts have been successful in establishing vocational center millages, Ianni said. Voters defeated two earlier proposals for career centers in December 1968 and June 1970. In the last election it was defeated by a narrow margin. Ianni said some conditions improving chances for passage of the career center proposal include: tax relief for senior citizens in 1974, a possibility federal funds will be available to help pay building costs and the possibility of state reimbursements for transportaron costs