Meet The Candidate

John A. Heald, direcíórot oenefin A tors Corporation's Detroit Data Center, 1 has announced his candidacy for the Ann Arbor Board of Education. The election is June 9. He submitted the following statement: "I believe the board and the school Administration have made some excellent progress during the recent past. However, it is also clear that many difficult problems remain. "We are in a period of complicated, changing needs. This means programs must also change. Yet, as the cost of operating our schools continúes to increase, we must insist on maximum educational return for every dollar spent. The school board must be able to justify thoroughly all changes and increases in spending patterns. "The realities of high taxes, spiraling costs, quality of program and the continuing concern about discipline in the schools present each of us in Ann Arbor with difficult and often contradictory choices. "If we are to meet the diverse educational needs of all the students, we need the flexibility and room for positive innovation which were among the objectives of the school decentralization, but we must still maintain a consistent program framework. We lost too much with decentralization. We must have better program coordination with specific educational goals for every grade level and a program of planned measurement to be sure the goals are met. "I am concerned about the basics of education, what today may be caïled communication skills but which are always the fundamentals of reading, writing and mathematics. Testing programs indícate that the proficiency scores of our children are declining. "I am concerned that cost-cutting in the past found quick and easy targets I such as shortened days and cutbacks in I the music program and junior high I sports. Perhaps a closer look at the I budget might have uncovered areas for I trimming which would not have disruptI ed the program. "Discipline remains a problem and my I concern centers in the area of consistent ■ application of rules. It appears that imB proper conduct is penalized indifferent ■ - I ways in different schools. Once the judgI ment is made that rules must be applied, I penalties should be consistently applied I in all schools. "There are no quick cures, no easy ■ I lutions. A member of the school board I ■ today must be available to all ithe Dgonip i P6 f ?„ÏÏdff ' SaWtÍns■ all individual needs or ually ■ against the common good . lsSetttermento M pniírecomiwjJI ff VS P' z2WCf JHhat I will have tne' iudgment to initiale and advance I grams that will enable each of us to share „. in an even better system of education for%,;. 1 all children. It is my hope that my back, „ . ground in business management wül-,, help me bring to this elective office the 1 viewpoint and the skills needed to find workable and fiscally sound solutions to .;■ problems." ■ ■ I Heald 40, is a life-long resident of Ann ,- I Arbor He attended the Ann Arbor public . . I schools, graduating from Ann Arbor „, I High School in 1952. He earned both lus., I bachelor's and master's degrees from I the University of Michigan. He has been employed by General Motors Corp. for 1 Active in PTO work, Heald has served as the Lawton School representative to. the school board. He and his wife,,..l Joanne. are the current co-presidents of,., the Lawton PTO. They live at 2154 Dela,.ware Dr. and have three children; Juhe, 16; Robert, 12; and David, 8. WShelley Ettingerá m öneuey wranger, a researen fasistanr ■ at the U-M's Institute of Labor and InI dustrial Relations, has announced her ■ cándidacy for the Ann Arbor Board of ■ Education in the June 9 election. I She submitted the following statement: I . "Three years ago I was a prisoner in the public school system. The memory is I still fresh, and it isn't a pleasant one. I'm glad to be out, but I still want to I push for major changes to make schools more meaningful and enjoyable for the people in them now. ' "Unfortunately, in a country ruled by big business, schools are nothing more than factories where young people are molded into a finished product - quiet and obedient, ready to take anything the system dishes out to them. Until our I system is re-oriented to serve human needs, the public schools will remain opp'ressive. In the interim, there are real and radical steps we can take to democratize the school system, and to reqrient the schools to the needs and desires of the students. "I am the Human Rights Party (HRP) candidate in a supposedly non-partisan I election. As such, I run on a specific I platform that speaks to the concerns of the students and workers in the schools. ■ HRP supports the basic right of all people to control their own lives. In the I system, that means transferring I power from the administration - overH helmingly white and male, with a vested H interest in the status quo - to the school H community of students, parents, teachI ers, and other staff. It means teachers I and other staff should have the right to I control their working conditions, including the right to strike, free speech, and non-discrimination on the basis of sexual preference. It means students and teachers should decide curriculum and run the classroom. HRP supports state and I federal funding of schools, based on a I steeply graduated income tax; we oppose I non-commercial property taxes which I keep going up and up. Brhgtíís". 'Coi porál pünisTníierit ana 'c'ompj ,J Isory attendance rules deny any sel m I blance of freedom to young people. T I I right of young people to due process,. ■ I freedom of the press, and to freedom, I assembly and organizing for political i I tion, must be respected. The age I I majority, which prevenís students fro I even voting in this election, must 1 1 I abolished. B "HRP believes schools are for studert I - or should be. But a school system thj I tracks students according to race aj I class, that runs inadequate athletic pr5 grams for women, that teaches sexii and racist and anti-gay attitudes is nj L-hplning' students. __