Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • Page 105

IB. jFRiDAY, JULY 13, 1979 ITYTOWN New Britain Bristol Southington Farmington Valley 21 School Hearing Angers Hispanics Walkout by 2 Board Members Prompts Resentment By CRAIG BAGGOTT NEW BRITAIN A joint meeting between the Board of Education and an Hispanic parents group ended abruptly Wednesday night when two board members walked out, leaving the parents feeling "totally confused, insulted and betrayed." Spokesmen for Hispanos Unidos said Thursday the group was insulted because the two board members, James J. Scalise and Jack Newton, walked away from the meeting during a brief recess, leaving too few members to continue with the hearing. Scalise said Thursday he left intentionally. "I wasn't going to spend any more time in a meeting that was not going anywhere," he said.

Spokeswoman Mildred Cuebas and Scalise had a tense exchange earlier in the meeting. He questioned the relevancy of the group's questions and she responded that Scalise had twice interrupted meetings "to say you're bored." Scalise said he was aware that Newton also was leaving and that the absence of both members would leave the board without a quorum. Newton, however, who left first, said he didn't realize there would no longer be a quorum." However, he indicated that he shared Scalis-e's view that "no useful purpose was being served" at the meeting. The parents said they felt betrayed and confused, when school officials called for a private session, to hear claims of racial slurs and child abuse by a teacher in a city classroom late last year. Mrs.

Cuebes said she and Ramiro Suarez, another of the group's spokesmen, said they aren't prepared to give up their seven-month-old fight to air the com made, weren't intended to be defamatory. Hispanos Unidos also charged that the teacher used an electrical device to discipline students in his classroom. But school officials, acknowledging that such a device is used in classrooms, said it is solely for "hands on" experiments. School board President Angelo R. Canzonetti told Mrs.

Cuebas and Suarez Wednesday night that testimony about the charges, and any other testimony involving individual teachers, would have to be given in private session. She and Suarez said the group is "willing but not eager" to accept an executive session in the interests of continuing the hearing. Canzonetti said Thursday that the hearing, which began June 26 and continued Wednesday night, will resume again on Tuesday. "I think we could conclude it then," he said. plaints of the Hispanic community in public.

"We have become the majority of the minority," in the school system, they said, "and we want to be heard." group began to" organize around the Hispanic community's complaints early this year. Its concerns originally centered on the classroom incident but later expanded to include hiring policies, dropout rates and' patterns of scholastic achievement by Hispanic students. In February, the group charged that a Slade Middle School teacher had slandered Puerto Ricans and Cubans and had said Hispanics came to the United States illegally to live off welfare. Hispanics were dissatisfied when School Superintendent Marie S. Gustin closed an administrative investigation into the matter, saying that any remarks, if they were On City Yard Matters Mayor Plans Meeting By SUSAN HOWARD BRISTOL Mayor Michael L.

Werner said Thursday that he plans to hold a meeting between public works management officials and city yard employes in an effort to soothe the unrest that has stirred at the city yard since a new garage superintendent was hired. Werner said he had hoped to have the meeting Thursday afternoon, but Councilman John Duffy, head of the council Salary Committee, was unable to attend. The mayor said he wants Duffy to attend because the councilman has the job description for a hew head mechanic's position, a position Werner hopes may solve part of the unrest problem at the city yard. The City Council hired George Johnson, formerly of Major Machinery in West Hartford, despite the protests of city public works employes who favored Edward Vetre, a mechanic in the yard, for the position. City officials maintained that Johnson was being hired for his administrative abilities and that Vetre had no experience in that realm.

Werner said Thursday he believes Vetre is the mechanic with the most seniority which would put Vetre in line for the head mechanic job. Local 1338, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employes, of ficials have said the morale at the city yard has fallen since Johnson began work. The mechanics have been insulted by the new superintendent, and the new superintendent has made errors in judgment on needed equipment repairs, they claim. But Werner said he also has been told of instances during which mechanics have been uncooperative with Johnson with no provocation. Johnson said Thursday night he doesn't want to comment on the problems at this time but added that he is looking forward to getting them aired in the meeting with the mayor.

It is not only the new garage superintendent hiring that has gotten public works employes angry, they say. Local 1338 President Edward Schiavoni, Vetre and other public works employes have said they too are city taxpayers and they are upset about wasteful spending that goes on within the Public Works Department. They said earlier this weekthat up in equipment was missing last spring from the city yard. Public Works Director John J. Gavin said, "What missing equipment?" when asked about their statements and Werner said that much equipment is not stored at the city yard.

Werner said $5,000 worth of missing equipment might be possible but not the amount that public works employes claimed. Pay TV Concept Reintroduced In Bristol Area By ELAINE J. LATTIMER A California-based broadcasting company owned by Gene Autry will seek Federal Communications Commission approval to reintroduce pay television to the Hartford area after a nearly 20-year absence. If permission is granted, Golden -West Broadcasters plan to broadcast conventional television programs on Channel 61 part of the time and run specialized programs other times to paid subscribers. Another television station, from Chesapeake, also plans to file an application with the FCC to broadcast over Channel 61.

Officers from Golden West were in the Hartford-Bristol area Thursday and Wednesday, surveying community and business leaders on what they think are the needs and problems of the Greater Hartford area. The survey is required by the FCC. Tom McCoy, associate general counsel for the. broadcasting company, said the survey will help determine what Hartford area residents prefer in broadcasting, whether foreign movies, sports or opera. Pay TV originated in Hartford when Zenith broadcast over Channel 18.

That was discontinued in the 1960s. Pay television works somewhat like Home Box Office, a trade name of another broadcast company. With Pay TV, specialized programs appear scrambled on the screen if the viewer isn't a subscriber. Subscribers pay for a decoder, which unscrambles the program. Unlike Home Box Office, specialized programs are run for certain areas instead of uniformly throughout the country.

McCoy said Golden West plans to file an application with the FCC sometime next month, probably in mid-August. The FCC then will decide whether to rant broadcasting rights to Golden West or the Ches-apeake-based firm. McCoy said the Hartford area has been chosen because Channel 61 is it is a large population center and because of nostalgia home of the country's first Pay TV station. Golden West Broadcasting is made up of KTLA-Television in Los Angeles and eight radio stations throughout the country. Autry also owns the California Angels.

KTLA is an independent television station and recently won an Academy Award for. "Scared Straight," a documentary about prison life in New Jersey. The television station produces some of its own programs, and is in a former Warner Bros. lot. Working on the Railroad Conrail workers fix railroad tracks at the Burlington Avenue, Rt.

6 intersection in Bristol, replacing the old track with newer steel track. Workers have been working double shifts trying to complete construction at the busy intersection (Keating Photo) Woman Claims Sex Discrimination in Court Suit By CRAIG BAGGOTT NEW BRITAIN A 16-year veteran of the city's Purchasing Department has asked a Superior Court judge to order her appointment as department director, claiming that she has been kept out of the position partly because of sex discrimination by Mayor William J. McNamara. Florence DePaiva, in papers filed at Superior Court here this week, said the mayor has acted in an "illegal, arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable" manner by not appointing her to the position. In January, the Civil Service Commission certified Miss DePaiva as the top-ranking candidate for the job on the basis of testing and other criteria.

But McNamara, in the ensuing months, has not moved, to make the appointment, claiming that civil service merit system rules require only that he act after the certification, "and it's still after that." "I do plan to appoint her, imagine, after I clear up some legal doubts in my mind," McNamara said Thursday. Although the mayor rejected the possibility that he has stalled the appointment because the top candidate is a woman, Miss DePaiva, in her court papers, claimed tha.t McNamara's actions "are based unlawfully on plaintiff's status as a female person." "Some my best friends are women," the mayor quipped later. "My wife is one." In his motion for a court order to force the appointment, attorney Harold J. Gera-gosian, representing Miss DePaiva, said that the city's merit act requires the mayor to appoint the "person achieving the highest ranking on a promotional test." The mayor's reluctance to do that, he said, "has resulted in a complete violation of the plaintiff's rights under the merit act." Although Corporation Counsel John V. Zisk said earlier this year that the appointment should be made, his opinion has apparently not swayed the mayor.

Zisk said recently that he can't understand why McNamara hasn't appointed Miss DePaiva to the position, a sentiment shared by a number of city officials, including members of the Civil Service Commission. Early this month, Zisk said he and McNamara have been unable to agree on what is a reasonable period of time to elapse between certification by the Civil Service Commission and appointment to a position. He said he knows of no questions remaining to be resolved that would block Miss De-Paiva's appointment. But McNamara said several times Thursday that he does have "legal doubts in my own mind" about the appointment. Although he refused to discuss them, he indicated that he will "explain some of the doubts soon." Meanwhile, Geragosian has asked a Superior Court judge to order Miss DePaiv-a's appointment, witha show cause hearing set for July 25.

In addition, Geragosian has asked that Miss DePaiva be awarded "fair, adequate and just monetary damages" of more than $7,500, "exemplary or punitive damages" and "any other appropriate relief." Zisk said Thursday that, despite his opinion that the appointment should be made, he would have no qualms about representing the mayor's point of view at the show cause hearing. "Unless the mayor has a personal reason, I can so no reason why not," he said. Expert To Study Radio Problems By S. AVERY BROWN BRISTOL An expert in 800-megahertz band police communications arrives today to begin a five-day scrutiny of the police communications system here, which officials hope will end the months of controversy surrounding the trouble-plagued system. The Association of Public Safety Communications Officers Inc.

agreed, at Mayor Michael L. Werner's request, to send in a member expert to revjew the city's $180,000 Motorola communications system and its problems. The detailed study is being funded with a grant from the federal Law Enforcement Assistance Administration and must be completed within five days. An agreement hammered out Monday in Hartford Superior Court between the city, police union and Motorola, calls for the expert's final report to be included in a still-to-be-heard police suit against the city and Motorola. The police union wants a temporary injunction to force the city and Motorola to make necessary improvements to the system so that patrolmen can communicate directly with police cruisers which they cannot do now.

The union claims the system jeopardizes the safety of police and residents and claims a technical backup system also must be provided to ensure policemen's safety. While the report is advisory only, officials here hope to learn how the system can be improved. Police union officials seek to bolster their" claims to scrap the system. CouronT photo by Jennifer Frtnclj Occupational Hazard.