2nd Campaign Offer Made By Teachers

Ann Arbor teachers made a second offer of campaign assistance to school board candidates two days after an initial offer had been made public and then rejected by two candidates, The News has discovered. The News also has learned that the i Ann Arbor Educators' Political Action Council approved a letter-writing campaign concerning the issue of campaign aid from groups to school board candidates. Candidates Wendy Barhydt, Tanya IsI rael and Willie J. Simpson rejected the I second campaign offer of services and materials from the teachers, Lafry Stewart, president of the Ann Arbor Education Association (AAEA) said. The upper limit on the value of the services and materials offered was $300 for Mrs. Baryhdt and $500 for Mrs. Israel and Simpson. Less than two weeks ago, Mrs. Israel and Simpson returned checks for $750 each for campaign expenses donated by the Ann Arbor Educators' Political Action Council. The candidates returned the funds after the gift offer was made public by Trustee Theodore Heusel at the May 22 school board meeting. The second campaign offer was approved by the Political Action Council May 24. "We wanted to give them some 1 port. The offer could have been used to I pay for an ad," Stewart said. Or the 1 didates could have used paper and labor I supplied by the teachers worth up to I $500, he added. Marcia Hansen, chairwoman of the I Political Action Committee, said "Our I in tention was not to give them money." The offer for materials and services was I not to go directly into the candidates' .campaign coffers. The Political Action, Council was to be billed . When asked what the Political Action Council will do with the money it can 't give away, Mrs. Hansen said, "Save i fornextyear." The council has contributed $1,000, or one dollar for every AAEA member, to the Citizens Committee for the Millage Campaign to support the campaign for the 1 .3-miU request on Monday 's ballot. The Political Action Council's funds come from a $5 contribution from Michigan Education Association (MES) members to a separate organization, the Michigan Political Action Council. Of eac;h $5, about $3.50 is returned to local groups for political action. Members of MEA may write and ask for their money back. Between 60 and 80 of the AAEA's 1,030 members have not contributed to the Political Action Council, Mrs. Hansen said. At the May 24 meeting of the Political Action Council when members decided to offer the services and materials to the three school board candidates, they also discussed an offer from a former school board candidate, Nancy Brussolo, to write a letter to the editor for publication in The News. Mrs. Brussolo, and two other candidates, Trustee Henry Johnson and Dr. Ronald Bishop, received $200 contributations from the Political Action Counciul for the 1972 school board campaign. The minutes from the meeting read: "... She (Mrs. Brussolo) wished to teil how appreciative she had been of the I PAC's support in the campaign two I years ago, and to state that she feit I groups were entitled to influence I tions. After discussion it was decided Marcia (Hansen) would teil Nancy (Brussolo) that we would appreciate her sending her letter to The Ann Arbor News. Others who wished to write letters would be encouraged to compose them but to hold them until we had a chance to feel public reaction." A letter to the editor charging the unilateral criticism of contributions tol campaigns for school board candidates is I unfair, signed by Mrs. Brussolo and Dr.l Bishop, appeared in The News Tuesday