Tallahassee Democrat from Tallahassee, Florida • Page 31

Tallahassee DemocratFit, March 10, 1989 LOCALSTATE Obituaries, 5 Comics, 6, 8 Classified ads, 12 get ire port card FaIM a good By J.L. Branch Democrat staff writer months and have made a complete turnaround," said Gadson, who became dean six months ago. "This is the first time we've ever broken the 80-percent passing mark." Last August, 45 students took the test and only 9 passed. In October 1988, eight of 18 test-takers succeeded. Students who don't pass the certification test can't teach in Florida.

College programs with fewer than 80 percent of their graduates passing the test face state sanctions. Gadson said the College of Education achieved the test-score turnaround by putting students through an intensive two-week workshop designed to review the content of the teacher exam and to improve students' test-taking skills. "As a result, things happen," Gadson said. There is still much to do, he said. The College of Education's curriculum is getting a complete overhaul, which is costing about $250,000.

And, of course, the workshops will continue. "We cannot run the risk of students not passing the examination," Gadson said. Three of FAMU's teacher-education programs elementary education, business education and music education are still without state Department of Education approval because of low passing rates. Those programs should be approved this year, Gadson said. "All we need to show is that students are making progress on the exams." Students in unapproved programs can take the teacher-certification test and become teachers, but must wade through more red tape than students in approved programs.

The Department of Education reviews the college transcripts of students in unapproved programs on a course-by-course basis before granting certification. Gadson, a former FAMU professor, has turned programs around before. As dean of Please see FAMU, 2C After nearly nine years of bad grades on teacher-certification exams, FAMU's College of Education has received a report card. Melvin Gadson, the new dean of Florida University's education college, announced Thursday that 21 of 24 students who took the certification test in January passed. That's the highest score that any group of FAMU education students has received since the test was first given in 1980.

"It's miraculous that our faculty and students got together over the past several Associated Press Gadson says the turnaround is miraculous Format change costs station its slot on cable 1 Sr" i 4tT By Chris Volak Democrat staff writer i 4 cause it would compete with that channel. "It's my responsibility to make the (cable) package as diverse as possible," Keating said. "In the interest of that kind of diversity, we will now be looking around for an alternative for (Channel 17's) spot." He added that "this kind of (shopping) programming is not high on (viewers') priority list." Comcast is not required to carry any local broadcast station and the cable company has no contractual agreement with Channel 17, Keating said. But Dennis Boyle, president of Phipps Broadcasting which owns both Channel 17 and WCTV, Channel 6 said that there was an agreement signed between the former Tallahassee cable company and the former owners of Channel 17. Boyle said he didn't know if the agreement was still binding or if the programming change violated the agreement W17AB came on the air in 1984 and is Tallahassee's oldest Please see STATION, 2C Monday marks the end of W17AB-TV as local viewers have come to know it That's when Channel 17 will replace its current programming with the Home Shopping Network, a Clearwater-based shopping service similar to the QVC shopping channel now on Comcast cable channel 11.

The station will carry the satellite service from sign-on at 6 a.m. to sign-off at midnight. And starting today Comcast Cablevision the cable-television company that serves Tallahassee will abandon Channel 17. Patrick Keating, general manager at Comcast, said that sometime this afternoon Channel 17 will be taken off of cable channel 13 and replaced with Nickelodeon. Nickelodeon will continue to run on cable channel 22 as well.

Keating said that the Comcast Corporation owns "a small percentage" of QVC but denied that Comcast was dropping Channel 17 be 4 i Toxic materials found in Cascade Park soil i i Hi By Bill Cotterell Democrat Capitot bureau tStmmt- At right, a Leon County woman and a Wood-ville man were injured Thursday morning in a head-on collision at the Old Woodville Road and Woodville Highway, Florida Highway Patrol officials said Thursday. According to Lt. Ken Knolls of the Highway Patrol, Sandra Hub-mann, 47, of Route 5, Box 437, was driving a 1979 Ford northbound on Old Woodville Road at 8:50 a.m. when she crossed the center line and hit William Lewis, 48, of Woodville, who was driving south on the Old Woodville Highway in a 1986 Ford pickup. Above, a rescue worker tries to free Lewis, who was pinned between the back of a seat and the steering wheel.

He was taken by LifeFlight to Tallahassee Memorial Regional Medical Center, Knolls said. A hospital official said Lewis not admitted. Hubmann was taken to TMRMC by ambulance and was in fair condition Thursday night. Charges are pending against Hubmann, FHP officials said. Phil CoaleDemocrat you," Lesemen said.

Contractors from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will begin detailed testing next week to determine the extent of chemical contamination in the ground and in the water table of a small aquifer beneath the site. Samples taken by the EPA will be analyzed at a federal laboratory in Athens, and results should be known in 45 days, the DER said. State investigators found the pollutants while routinely checking former coal-gasification sites in several parts of Florida. The rity owned and operated a gasification operation in the area from the early part of this century through the mid-1950s.

The DER said a preliminary assessment of soil at the Cascade Park showed presence of polynu-clear aromatic hydrocarbons, a Please see SOIL, 2C 4 State investigators have found chemical contaminants including some cancer-causing pollutants in soil samples at Tallahassee's Cascade Park, the Department of Environmental Regulation said Thursday. The department said, however, that water samples taken in January from two municipal drinking-water wells near the site showed no signs of contamination. The city continues to monitor the wells. Bill Lesemen, the city superintendent of water quality, said the pollutants are a type that binds to soil, and pose little danger to anyone recently walking in the park now closed. He said a visitor would have to dig or build in the park, to come in contact with the toxic substances.

"It's not going to jump out on it fJk" Junior Museum is candidate for $80,000 grant from state State seems to favor the use of flex-time to ease traffic jams By Chris Volak Democrat staff writer By Kit Bauman Democrat staff writer and unloading area for buses and a meeting room. "This is the museum's first major building project in 30 years," said Lane Green, the Junior Museum's executive director. "We are very excited about it" The museum was one of 45 Florida organizations that received grant recommendations Tuesday from the Department of State and, along with the Young Actor's Theatre, was one of two Tallahassee organizations to make the list The list was ranked in order of The Florida Department of State has recommended an $80,000 cultural-facilities grant for the Tallahassee Junior Museum to construct a permanent visitors center. Museum spokeswoman Mary Beth Winters said the planned building will contain not only an admissions area "but a retail store and a small exhibit area. It will replace the temporary building at the parking-lot entrance." She said the project also will include new rest rooms, a loading Phil CoaleDemocrat Like postal carriers Neither, rain, sleet, snow nor chilly tern- pool water is heated to a comfortable 82 peratures can stay this group of avid degrees.

Known as the "lunch bunch," swimmers from their appointed laps at the the swimmers gather Monday-Saturday at State officials appear interested in instituting staggered work hours for state employees but opposed to raising parking fees at the state's parking lots and garages. Tallahassee and Leon County have asked for the changes to help ease traffic congestion. Approximate ly 32 percent of the Leon County work force is state workers. Secretary of Administration Adis Vila, asked by Gov. Bob Martinez to meet with local officials, said she would not recommend that the governor approve either of the requests as stated.

She did agree, however, to send a memo to all agency heads explaining the state's rules regarding work schedules and encouraging them to establish flex-time policies. Vila also agreed to target her memo to those state agencies that have offices in Tallahassee's high-traffic corridors. The city-county request specifically asked the Please see GRANT, 2C FSU union pool especially since the 11:15 a.m. for an hour of swimming. Budget sparring ends in a draw, with little information gained By Dave Bruns Democrat Capitol bureau chief each other to a draw, without shedding much light on the needs of the state or on what it will take to meet those needs.

Despite carefully prepared questions. Democratic lawmakers could not force Martinez's budget aides to admit that the Republican governor deliberately downplayed the needs of the state so as to avoid a politically costly tax increase. Please see BUDGET, 2C and Senate budget committees, governor's aides were to play the part of the bear. But after a day of partisan bickering ended. Democratic lawmakers and Republican governor's aides had talked Gov.

Bob Martinez's budget staffers knew they'd been invited to a bear hunt Thursday: In testimony before House Please see PARKING. 2C.