1996-06-25; Central Michigan Life

              Central
Michigan
LIFE
WEDNESDAY,
JUNE 26,
1996
VOLUME 78, NUMBER 93
MOUNT PLEASANT, MICHIGAN 48859
Ol 996 CM LIFE
(517)774-3493
10 PAGES
Local charter
school receives
start-up funds
By Cindy Trombley
LlFE Editor	
A Mount Pleasant area school
is one of 14 Michigan charter
schools receiving a grant to help
defray start-up costs.
The Renaissance Public School
Academy, one of CMU's charter
schools, received financial assistance last week from the
Michigan Partnership for New
Education and the United States
Department of Education.
The school, which is scheduled
to begin classes in mid-August,
was awarded a $20,000 grant
and an additional $15,000 loan.
The Department of Education
awarded a total of $750,000 to
Michigan charter schools. The
Michigan Partnership for New
Education, an organization in
Lansing that assists charter
schools, administered the grant
on behalf of the state.
Olga Pierre, specialist for the
charter school initiative, presented a check for $35,000 to the
school's administrators and
toured the school so she could
report her findings to the
Partnership.
Pierre said she was impressed
by the school. The school had to
participate in a statewide competition to receive the monies.
She said the school was fortunate because many schools are
not able to construct a new
building.
"It's really quite impressive,"
she said. Finding a building to
house a school in is a barrier for
many places, she said.
According to Sue Martin, one
of the co-founders of the academy, the grant application was
about 100 pages long and included the teaching philosophy of
Renaissance and how the money
was going to be spent.
The teaching philosophy of the
school is a bit different from
other schools, Martin said. The
school board and the administrators feel it's important for the
teachers to team teach, she said.
"We feel it's important for
teachers to work together," she
said. Three "very open" classrooms were set up to allow students to go from one class to
another.
"We expect to see movement of
students from class to class," she
said.
Martin said the academy,
which is for grades five through
eight, also consists of large classrooms which are actually two
smaller rooms that can be divided by partitions.
Each smaller room has heating and air conditioning controls,
a phone, a pager, a sink and an
outside exit for emergencies,
Martin said.
The school also has a large
kitchen for fund-raising projects
and to make food from other cultures, she said. However, students need to bring their own
lunches and will eat with their
teachers in the classroom.
Martin said this helps the
classroom environment. In addition, the fifth and sixth grade
teachers will participate in "looping."
The fifth grade teacher "graduates" to sixth grade with the students and the sixth grade
teacher goes back to the fifth
grade to start the process over,
Martin said.
The school follows an integrated thematic curriculum, which
means the subjects in the classes
are set-up to overlap, Martin
said.
"Certainly, the core things will
be taught, but they'll be woven
together," she said.
Martin said the school will
have eight certified teachers as
well as teaching assistants.
Connie Green wald, the other
co-founder of the school, said the
teachers' wages to develop the
curriculum were one of the startup costs being paid by the grant.
Other start-up costs include
leasing the facility and buying
furniture and supplies, she said.
Martin said expenses for the
first year are budgeted at $1 million.
The school will have 175 students when the year begins
because there only will be one
eighth grade class this year, she
said. The charter from CMU
allows the school to have 200
students.
Martin said she anticipates
having a waiting list for every
grade level after this year.
CMU appropriated largest
funding increase of decade
By Dave Borough
LIFE Staff Writer
Gov. John Engler reaffirmed
his commitment to higher education by signing the largest funding increase in a decade for
Michigan's colleges and universities.
According        to Maureen
McNulty, spokeswoman for the
Department of Management and
Budget, Central will be receiving
$67.8 million, an increase of
5.9% in funding, for the 1996-97
school year.
McNulty said the increase also
includes an additional contribution to CMU for technology programs.
CMU, along with Western
Michigan University, Eastern
Michigan University and
Oakland University, will split a
technology adjustment of $1.85
million, she said.
"The technology adjustments
is a recognition of the schools
technology programs," she said.
The $1.5 billion funding to the
state's universities and community colleges is a $71.2 million
increase from the current year,
she said.
Engler's appropriations
request for capital outlay projects, which includes the Park
Library remodeling project has
not yet received funding by the
Legislature, she said.
"The Legislature has not yet
acted on the governor's capital
outlay request," McNulty said.
"They should approve of the
request before the end of the
year."
President Leonard Plachta
said he is pleased with CMU's
appropriations increase as well
as the positive potential of
receiving more funds for the
library project.
"In general, (the funding) is
quite good compared to other
states. The governor and the legislature have provided the best
funding in the last 10 years,"
Plachta said.
John Truscott, Engler's
spokesman, said this is a continuation of Engler's commitment
to higher education.
"The governor has been favorable to Central since his days
back in the legislature," Truscott
said. "He is familiar with area
and has always been open and
receptive to the university."
LIFE Photo/Bryan Bosch
The roof of Fred Yuncker's second garage, 3730 N. Vandercar Road, (Above) was lifted up to retrieve what was underneath, including
his antique Model A Ford. (Right) A tornado left debris from trees and a family camper in Kim Scully's front yard, 4281 N. Nottawa
Road.
Tornado causes property damage
By Cindy Trombley
LIFE Editor
Moments after arriving home
Friday, Kim Scully huddled in
the basement with two of her
children listening to the wind
howling and glass breaking
above them.
Scully, who lives at 4281 N.
Nottawa Road, was one of the
victims of a tornado that
touched down about a mile
northeast of Beal City.
"I could hear wind and glass
breaking," Scully said. "Within
less than 30 seconds it was
over."
When Scully, her 13-year-old
daughter, Laura, and 11-year-
old son, Eric, climbed out of
their basement they found the
tornado had severely damaged
their property.
According to Capt. William
Burns, director of Emergency
Management for Isabella
County and Isabella County
undersheriff, the Scullys were
not the only family with property damage.
Burns said at least five different locations were "rather
severely" hit by the tornado,
which touched down at approximately 9:20 p.m.
The tornado, which caused
more than $500,000 in damage
to the major areas hit, occurred
in "the general area of Beal City.
The residents probably all have
Mount Pleasant or Weidman
addresses though," he said.
"There was a lot of wind damage generally throughout the
area," he added.
A friend of the Scullys, Larry
Collins, was on his way to the
residence when the tornado
occurred.
Collins described the sky as
being pitch dark. "It looked really spooky to come in this area."
Collins estimated Saturday
there was about $40,000 worth
of damage done.
Scully said an official estimate
probably won't be available until
the end of the week.
The garage was ripped about
two feet off its foundation. A
small shed also was torn off its
foundation.
The only trees left standing
were a few small saplings. The
larger trees were uprooted and
moved several feet, one of which
was moved more than 20 feet.
A 20-foot camper was thrown
at least 50 feet across the yard
smashing the roof of a 1989
Pontiac before landing in shreds
in an uprooted tree.
Windows were smashed, siding was torn off, shingles were
found miles away, the electricity
was out and the Scully residence
was covered in dirt.
The satellite dish was twisted
See TORNADO Page 5	
Temporary Affirmative Action Officer named
By Heather IM. LaFave
LIFE News Editor	
The position of interim affirmative action officer was filled
by a faculty member who has
been with the university since
1971.
Martha Logsdon, professor of
political science, accepted the
position of interim affirmative
officer last week.
Logsdon said she believes it is
a big job and said it is important
for the university to take it seriously.
"It's an important position for
the university and I feel like I
have the experience to do it,"
Logsdon said. "I'm pleased to
have been chosen."
In describing her new job,
Logsdon said she will be oversee
ing the hiring process to try to
improve the representation of
women, African-Americans and
other "protected groups" so
CMU's faculty and other employees are representative of the
general public.
She said she also will be handling complaints and cases related to affirmative action as well
as completing official reports
and documentation.
She said the length of her time
in the office has been left open-
ended, but said she hopes a permanent replacement is found by
the end of fall semester.
She said it depends on the
screening process of potential
officers who apply after the
national search begins for a permanent replacement for Angela
Haddad.
In May, Haddad announced
her resignation from the position
as of July 1.
Logsdon said she doesn't think
she will apply for the permanent
position.
University Counsel Eileen
Jennings said the decision to
hire Logsdon for the interim
position was made because
Logsdon's qualifications for the
job are "outstanding."
"She was chosen because we
are darn lucky to have someone
so marvelously qualified to fill
the position on a temporary
basis," Jennings said. "I'm just
delighted she agreed to fill the
position, and I am confident she
will do a terrific job.
"Sometimes interims are hired
to keep an office functioning, but
I am sure she will do much mors!
than just keep the office func-;
tioning," she said.
She said Logsdon's active;
involvement with various committees which worked on affir-;
mative action issues, as well aa
her position within the College
of Arts and Sciences in m similar
capacity as the associate dean,*
show her pro-active interest in;
affirmative action interests.
"She has had a long-standing
commitment and track record for
supporting the issue,* Jennings;
said.
A faculty member in the political science department sines*
1971,   Logsdon  served  as  the
See OFFICER Page 9