Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 5

0 DAY, JANUARY 29, 1999DETROIT FREE PRESS 3B FERNDALE oard to close nfir rmrrrr' EJL nnnnnpr.nr. DEE EG i I 1 Wl i3 1.4 BU rum EG EE! i mm liniirA urn Ml -i -s 1 ik 2 schools in budget crunch iWfci Irrfwc 'wiim muni mi i iiMiwiiiiiiiiiiiaiiiiiiiiliiliii iini Courtesy of Suns Wiirncrii Associates This architect's rendering of die Grecktown casino shows the building's east side along St, Antoinc. Casino contruction to start Gaming sites sponsors bet Greekown and the city will benefit pit 1 It 7 sions and balance this year's budget. Washington and Jefferson could bring the district money if the buildings are used to house profit-making programs, board members said. One school might be used for the district's alternative and adult education programs which will vacate their current space at St.

James Parish on July 1 to make way for a charter school. Other options include renting space to Oakland Schools, the county's intermediate school district, for unspecified educational programs. Ferndale city officials also are interested in a senior citizens center at one of the schools. I.ast week's approval of the charter school, run by the Edison Project, a for-profit management company, has further complicated matters. School officials have complained that a charier school in the heart of their district will drain even more students from an already shrinking group.

The school, named the Edison-Concord Public School Academy, will be open to all students from the state but is expected to draw heavily from surrounding districts and Detroit. School officials expect to open Aug. 31 with more than 800 students in grades K-5. Thursday night, a group of parents from Taft, one of Ferndale's eight elementary schools, lobbied the board to expand its popular open classroom program to compete with the charter. The program has mixed grade levels and offers children more personal attention.

The board formed a committee to study the proposal. "We don't even know what Edison is going to do to us," said board member Vicki Brennan. The district gets state aid based on enrollment, which is projected to drop from 4,200 students this year to 3,686 by 2004. Ferndale has lost 450 students since 1993. Tamara Audi can be reached at BY TAMARA AlDI Free IVfss Stall WriltT The Ferndale Board of Education buckled its belt on the last notch Thursday night, voting 5-1 to close two elementary schools and instructing the superintendent to come up with a plan for further budget cuts and layoffs during the next three years.

"It's a day for reality in Ferndale," said school board President Ed Sharpies, commenting on the painful decision to close Washington and Jefferson elementary schools amid angry outcry from parents. "If we're going to protect the quality of academic programs, this is one of the few options we have." At the end of this school year, 71-year-old Jefferson Elementary, with 90 students, will close. And 76-year-old Washington Elementary, with 120 students, will close at the end of the 2000-2001 school year. The district's two junior high schools will become middle schools in the fall of 2000, taking children in grades 6, 7 and 8. Each closing will save an estimated $240,000 per year in maintenance expenses, Superintendent Marcee Martin said.

Four teachers, a custodian, a secretary and 12 lunch aides could lose their jobs. Washington Principal Karen Bolak and her husband, Jefferson Principal Greg Bolak, may also be laid off. "A lot of people moved to my neighborhood because of Washington school," said Mark Humphreys, one of about 70 parents who attended the meeting to object to the closings. The district faces a projected $642,678 deficit in the current school year that will be covered by money left from previous years, Martin said. Even with the closings, continued declining enrollment is expected to push the deficit to $1.2 million in the 1999-2000 school year and $2.1 million in 2000-2001.

This is just a first step," Martin said Thursday. During the next few months, the board and school administrators will hold budget study ses- NIC StALSDetroit hee Press This corner of St. Antoine and Kast I-nfaycUc is where construction will begin Monday on the 1 1 5-miIlion temporary gaming facility. Temporary casino in Greektown Below is a streel-lovel map of the planned temporary casino in Detroit's Greektown neighborhood. The casino is expected to open this summer.

Monroe Retail area Existing Pegasus Restaurant Existing Existing adjacent adjacent 2 3 ra building building' Slot machines, gambling tables by bill McGraw I'ree I'ress Stall Writer After 12 years of plans, votes, false starts and big dreams, Greek-town impresarios Ted Galzaros and Jim Papas will start building a $1 15-niillion temporary casino on Monday that will transform Detroit's best-known neighborhood. They and their partners, the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians, must obtain a state license to operate their facility. But having Detroit-based Diamond Dismantling begin work puts them one major step closer to their goal. "Obviously, this is a very big day for us," casino spokesman Roger Martin said Thursday. Galzaros, who washed dishes at a coney island restaurant after immigrating to Detroit from Greece at age 17, links the Greektown casino to the revival of downtown.

That commercial and entertainment renaissance appears to be far from a sure thing, but Gatzaros persevered in Detroit during a time when hundreds of thousands of residents and businesspeople departed. "Everything is about to bust loose in this city," Gatzaros predicted recently. The casino will have three-quarters of the gambling space of Windsor's new casino. It will operate for four years while the permanent casinos are under construction on the east riverfront, and will provide an estimated 1,500 jobs. Drawings show a graceful building of fewer than 10 stories and little neon that appears to blend in with the 19th-century neighborhood of restaurants, bars and churches on the east side of downtown.

Using a portion of Trappers Alley, the shuttered five-story mall, the casino will extend to a new structure to be built south of Trappers Alley, The casino's main entrance will be on East I-afayette, east of Beaubien, although high rollers will have their own door off of St. Antoine, near St. Mary's Catholic Church, which has been home to a chapter of Gamblers Anonymous. Monroe Street, Greektown's main drag, will remain relatively untouched. Some of the retail space in Trappers Alley will be preserved, and the Pegasus and Blue Nile restaurants will remain.

"We will maintain the ethnic flavor of Monroe Street," Martin said. "Greektown already is Detroit's No. 1 social destination. We don't want to destroy that." The MGM Grand temporary casino is under construction at the Lodge Freeway and Abbott; the At waterCircus Circus casino is planned for the bidge and Grand River. Neither facility will have the Greektown casino's amenities: It is in a brand-name neighborhood near Harmonie Park, General Motors Renaissance Center headquarters and two new stadiums.

It is connected to the Atheneum Suites Hotel and the People Mover. The casino's understated design DETROIT School choice has support of clergy The Rev. Arthur Pointer learned as a child that "you've got to hit the iron while it's hot. I believe the iron is hot now," he said Thursday at a news conference in Detroit called by pastors who support tuition tax credits and vouchers for private schools. Pointer, pastor of Mint's Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle, said school choice is needed to improve public schools.

"We're losing kids," said the Rev. Robert Coverson, pastor of Second Chapel Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Detroit. "We're graduating kids who can't spell He said that if parents have greater opportunities to take their children out of public schools, bad schools will have no choice but to improve. The new group of at least a dozen pastors, called Michigan Clergy for Excellence in Education, will throw its support behind a proposal that Michigan school-choice backers hope to put on the November 2000 ballot. The proposal would give a slate income-tax credit to parents paying tuition or individuals and businesses contributing to scholarships for low-income students.

iy Tracy Van Moorkhem DETROIT Contents of audit to remain sealed Wayne County Probate Judge David Szymanski refused Thursday to unseal a fraud audit detailing how $I(i million was embezzled from at least 8,000 merchant seamen by the Jaqucs Admiralty liiw Firm of Detroit. Szymanski said the fact that the firm and other parties in a probate court dispute signed an agreement last year to keep the audit secret outweighs the public's right to know the contents of the report, which explains how the money was taken and who might have been involved. The firm, through one of its lawyers, Michael Connor, claims the money was stolen by the firm's founder, Ijeonard Jaques, and that the theft was discovered shortly after Jaques died last June. Jaques' widow, Sybil, who is battling in probate court for control of the firm, claims members of the firm were aware. The money was stolen from lawsuit settlements owed to seamen for asbestos exposure aboard merchant vessels.

Although Sybil Jaques' lawyer initially signed the confidentiality agreement, she did not object to making the report public. Connor argued Thursday that unsealing the audit would damage the reputation of the firm and its employees. I'ree Press lawyer Cynthia Thomas argued that Szymanski allowed the records to be sealed in violation of court rules. She said the Free Press is considering appealing Szyman-ski's decision. By David Ashenfelter MARQUETTE City tries to save its smoking ban The City of Marquette this week appealed a Circuit Court ruling that local governments cannot ban cigarette smoke in restaurants.

Earlier this month, Marquette Circuit Judge John Weber ruled that local governments are preempted from passing laws that limit restaurant smoking. Marquette had a clean-indoor-air ordinance that would have banned all restaurant smoking in the city this month. The judge's ruling overturned that ordinance and was prompted by a lawsuit filed against the city by the Michigan Restaurant Association, Michigan Chamber of Commerce and six restaurants. Jay Cragwall, a Grand Rapids attorney representing the city, said the circuit judge misinterpreted slate law. By Wendy Wendland BRIEFLY Royal Oak: Gilda's Club, which offers free support for family and friends of cancer patients, celebrated its one-year anniversary Thursday.

It served more than 600 members in its first yearf operation. Lobby rV E. Lafayette Monroe E. Lafayette ROYAL OAK 2,200 slot machines 94 table games One upscale steakhouse restaurant One small bar with entertainment Pegasus and the Blue Nile restaurants Gambling on first and third floors Apartment tenants must put half of monthly rent in escrow nThe fire station and a vacant store and bar on East Lafayette will be demolished, as will the seven-story Manufacturers Building at Beaubien and East Lafayette. A new building will be constructed between Monroe and East Lafayette.

The casino's main entrance will be on East Lafayette, and a VIP entrance will be on St, Antoine. Source: GreaktownSautl Tribe of Chippewa Indians By Brian ballou Free Press Slaff Writer Residents of the condemned Kingswood Manor apartments in Royal Oak were ordered by a judge Thursday to put half of their monthly rent in escrow while they prepare for trial against their landlord, who is seeking rent that tenants have withheld due to dilapidated conditions. During a hearing, 44th District Judge Terrence Brennan ordered 12 tenants to put half of their future rent, which ranges from $350 to $500 a month, in escrow. Two tenants with worse conditions were ordered to put 25 percent of their rent in escrow. The escrow amounts are all that they are required to pay.

The ruling is not retroactive and begins with February's rent. Tenants have until Feb. 8 to submit payments to the court. "Some offset is appropriate be cause of the conditions there. It is not appropriate that they live there and pay nothing," Brennan said.

Some residents liked the ruling. "It's fair," said Harry Newman. He said he has to use a common bathroom because he has no hot water. He was ordered to pay 25 percent. A Royal Oak building inspector testified during the hearing that many of the 16 apartments that she inspected had smoke detectors that didn't work, rotting windows and exposed wiring.

The city condemned the building, on 11 Mile just west of Main, and is taking steps to raze it. But tenants have been allowed to remain until they find other quarters. The attorney for Kingswood argued that if the tenants are complaining about uninhabitable conditions, they shouldn't continue to live in the apartments. Detroit Free Press temporary casino approved of its appearance. "I like it," said Bassy Dimitriou, wife of the owner of Simeon's Bakery and Deli who is anticipating the additional fool traffic.

Tasso Teftsis, owner of Astoria Pastry, has criticized the decision to build a casino in Greektown. "But the building is fine," he said. "It seems like it will blend well wilh the neighborhood." Bill McGraw can be reached at 1-313-223-4781. is a far cry from what the Gatzaros group envisioned for its permanent casino, which was to be located in Greektown before Mayor Dennis Archer selected the riverfront location last year. That conception called for two futuristic towers rising about 40 stories and topped by roofs that looked like hamburger buns stuck with toothpicks.

While opinion has differed among Greektown merchants over the arrival of big-lime gambling, everyone who saw a drawing of the Courage to fix city's school system is the best deal, and the price is right 'm a compulsive shopper. But I'm not compulsive about shopping for shoes or clothes or jewelry or scarves. I shop compulsively for schools. DESIREE COOPER Jf Jlr ballyhooed HOPE team, and the Annenberg Foundation. Now the board, feeling the heal of the governor's latest scheme, struggles to come up with another plan.

Enough already. Our credit cards are maxed out, and we're near bankruptcy. For my part, I'll keep searching for ideas and classrooms that work and write about them. As for Detroit's shopaholic parents, we should stop buying a bill of goods. The last thing we need is another sequined plan to hang in the closet next to the faded reform efforts.

What we need to fix the system the courage to determine what Detroit's children need and to give it to them at all costs is the one thing that money can't buy. To contact Desiree Cooper, call perfect fit. Detroit is a city full of parents who are compulsive shoppers. I know parents who enroll their children in a different school every year, aiming for the city's best teachers at each grade level. One of my son's fifth-grade classmates had been to a different school every year since she was five.

Now it seems that Gov. John Engler and the Detroit school board have become compulsive shoppers. Over the last decade, the he has tried on plan after plan: first charter schools, then Freedom Schools, and now a plan to let mayors take over ailing school districts. And the school board has shopped for so many reform plans over the last decade, it could open up an education outlet mall. There were the reform efforts of Dr.

John Porter, of charter school guru Dr. Deborah McGriff. of the inttch- because my children have what in Detroit are considered "special needs." They need a reasonably sized class, so that overwhelmed teachers won't be tempted to grade them high for good behavior instead of academic excellence. They need dedicated instructors who view parent involvement as integral to the learning experience, not as bothersome meddling. They need a well-maintained building.

They need an administration that will make sure books are delivered on time, that principals have enough latitude to run their buildings, and that great teachers are rewarded. They need an atmosphere that views their African-American heritage as a foundation for excellence, not an excuse for mediocrity. I shppped, Until I dropped. But no anoint of hunline turned tin a The earliest indication that I had a problem was soon after I learned I was pregnant with my first child 12 years ago. It was then that my friends noticed that flush in my face: the sign of a woman who, even in her first trimester, is already frantic about how her child would get a good education in Detroit.

Since then, I've shopped nonstop. When it came time to choose a kindergarten for one of my two children, I visited schools the way church buses visit mega malls. I sampled the products. I compared the contents. I checked other consumer reports.

And then I made the buy: Nataki Talibah a ifiKlir whuol on Detroit's west side chartered by Central Michigan University. I've been happy, but it didn't stop my shopping. Nataki only goes to the fifth grade, so I knew I'd be back in the market soon. I realize now that my obsession with my children's education had clouded my ability to think clearly. I had believed that just because I paid taxes and voted for every Detroit school millage and bond issue since 1984, 1 was somehow entitled to a school system I could use.

Mv fnission was all the harder.