12-13 Per Cent Turnout Forecast

A proposed one-mill charter millage I for building and operating a county-wide I career center is expected to bring only 12 I to 13 per cent of the county's some 100, I 000 registered voters to the polls TuesIday. "Ann Arbor will be the key to whether_ ï it passes or falls," according to Patríck I Gilbert, Career Education Planning DisI trict coördinator for the Washtenaw I Intermediate School District (WISD). I Gilbert is making the 12-13 per cent turnI out prediction. I Approximately 70 per cent of the vote I is expected tobe cast in Ann Arbor. I The $7.6 millioñ center is to serve 2,400 í i" lOth through 12th grade public lanü parochial school students on a. half-day basis. Students would attend their home schools the other half day. Services to be provided include job training for students who plan to work after high school graduation, supplemental programs for college bound students, remedial instruction for special educaI tion and handicapped students and adult! I programs needed for graduation require-; I ments. Nine of the school districts within the I WISD endorse the career center proposal I or at least endorse placing the issue on I the ballot: Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Willow I Run, Lincoln Consolidated, Dexter, I Chelsea, Manchester, Milan and Saline. The Whitmore Lake Board of Education opposes the center because trustees believe Whitmore Lake students would not benefit enough from the center. Voters will face two questions on the i ballot: one to increase property taxes by one mili and a second authorizing the intermedíate district to issue tax bonds up to $7.6 million. The money needed to, repay the tax bonds will come from the one mili requested. If agproved, the additional one mili in taxes will cost taxpayers $1 more for every $1,000 of equalized property value. For a home with a market value of $30, 000, which is assessed and equalized at j half its value, $15,000, the additional one ! mili would mean $15 more in taxes a; year. This is the third time voters will be asked to approve a vocational education facility. They rejected previous proposals in 1968 and 1970. Ann Arbor Supt. Harry Howard said yoter decisions regarding the career center will have far reaching implications for education of youths in years to come. "We know that within the next decade approximately three-fourths of all available jobs will require vocational skills. Orily about 5 per cent of the available jobs will be done by non-skilled workers. Ttiere is a great need to expand the opportunities of our high school age youth in their preparation for their lifes' work," Howard said. A new career center would also help relieve overcrowding at the senior high level in Ann Arbor, Howard added. If the building is constructed, it would I house approximately 1,200 full time I equated students. Because Ann Arbor I students represent about one half of the I county's school enrollment, I ly 600 full-time (or 1,200 half time) I dents would be able to attend the facility I Howard added. Site selection for the center, he said, I will be based on several criteria: the site I should not require more than 30 minutes I of travel time from any high school, the I site should be approximately 30 acres in I size, and the site should have good I ries as 1-94 and U.S. 23. The area career center to be operated I by the WISD would offer county I ary students some 40 vocational I grams in areas such as business and I clerical skills, data processing, photographic occupations, commercial art, medical-dental occupations, and I mental occupations. Gilbert said the center's program I would be based on the needs of local I iness and industry. The center would also'provide testing I and assessment of student abilities, I reer counseling and job placement I vices, according to Gilbert. The Career Education Planning I trict coördinator points to the success of I other career centers in the state. A I ter in Genessee County placed 98 per I cent of its graduates in jobs during I 1970 to 1972, according to Gilbert. In I houn County 89 per cent of the center's I graduates have been placed in jobs I ing the past two years. There are 26 area career centers I operating in Michigan . I