Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • 125

7 1 Ifegion I State IT' Thursday, June 14, 2001 Domino's laiid MEAP allegation to gain school. I. cllief, watM respond to charges of cheating raise Superintendents By JULIE ROSS FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER First, the bombshell. Then, the shock. Now, the wrath.

Responses to allegations of test cheating in some Michigan schools continued flowing into Lansing this week as superintendents wrapped up investigations and tried to prove their students and teachers did nothing wrong. Gov. John Engler acknowledged Wednesday that he was uncomfortable with the way the information was made public. More than a few school officials were angry. "Do you know what the problem was in our building? Three students used similar words in two questions," Roger Markham, superintendent of Van Dyke Public Schools in Warren, wrote in a letter accompanying his response to questionable tests at Max Thompson School.

"The mentality of this state seems to be one of suspicion and mistrust." The state Treasury Department -i which oversees the Michigan Educational Assessment Program, or MEAP last week released a list of 71 schools with similar written responses on tests taken last winter. Students Monaghan paying for move, expansion of Ave Maria College By SHAWN WINDSOR FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan is about to spend $65 million of his own money, maybe more, to expand and move Ave Maria College from Ypsilanti to the same complex that houses his former pizza empire in Ann Arbor Township. Ave Maria has 135 students and is located near Eastern Michigan University. When it moves to the 275-acre Domino's Farms complex that Monaghan owns, he hopes to increase enrollment to 1,500 students. The plan is to eventually add 310,000 square feet to the Farms I complex.

Ave Maria's instructional, I library and other education-related facilities will be put into a addition that will connect the two existing company headquarters buildings. Dorms for 290 students, a theater and athletic fields also will be built. Construction is to begin early next year and should be completed for the 2003 school year. The educational complex is the culmination of nearly 25 years of dreaming, Monaghan said Wednesday. Domino's Farms is already home to a kindergarten, elementary and high schools and a nearby law school, located across U.S.-23 from Domino's Farms.

"Student life is very important to me," Monaghan said. at more than 3,000 elementary and middle schools took the exam. Treasurer Doug Roberts gave superintendents until the end of this week to explain similarities, or their schools would receive a score of zero. Fewer than a dozen superintendents had responded by Wednesday afternoon. Treasury Department spokeswoman Bridget Medina said schools could get an extension if needed, but she has received no requests.

Meanwhile, Roberts is scheduled to appear before a joint state House and Senate education committee in Lansing at 1 p.m. today to explain the department's process for singling out the suspicious tests. That would be good to know, said Thomas Dobbs, superintendent of Warren Woods Public Schools. "We have no idea what rubric the state is coming up with to determine 'teacher he said Wednesday. "If there's a standard for deciding what is teacher interference, we'd like to know what it is." Pinewood Elementary School in the Warren Woods district was singled out by the state for six responses on its fifth-grade fry, 1 GUARDS! Red Cross fills safety need Student arrestee in drug sales He envisions a campus of stu- I dents from around the world learning philosophy, theology, science and a "real go6d sense of right and wrong." And he hopes the Complex is used as a model for Catholic schools around the world.

"I want to tfy to help other people start up colleges," he said. The campus project is being submitted to Ann Arbor Township, along with a request for a change in zoning to allow higher education on the premises. 1 "This is an important event in Catholic higher education," said Ave Maria President Nicholas Healy. "We're talking about one of the most noteworthy and recognizable commercial locations in the world." Healy said the school will hot displace Domino's pizza operations or other tenants who use the complex that opened In 1985 as the headquarters of Monaghan'i company. Healy said the school will attract other companies and nonprofit organizations, and en-courage them to participate In university life.

Monaghan created Ave Maria in 1998 and supports it through a foundation. It offers philosophy and theology courses. Students may take other humanities courses at St. Mary's College of Ave Maria University in Orchard Lake and science courses at Eastern Michigan University. Lansing Bishop Cari Mengel-, ing, whose diocese includes Ann Arbor Township called the plan "faithful to the church Contact SHAWN WINDSOR at 313- 222-6487 or windsorflvepivgs.com.

stuffed in his pants -7 in the boys' rest room, police said. "What is a 17-year-old student doing at our middle school? asked a teacher who did riot want to be named. "We had no idea that we. had a kid this old at our school We-are very concerned about this kid openly selling drugs from a brown paper bag in the classroom." The school at 3900 Plckfofd oh the city's west side has about 500 seventh-graders, through ninth-graders. It will release its students for the summer today.

A district spokesperspn said offw cials could not 'comment on why a 17-year-old was in middle school. 7 A police spokesman Sgt. Ri-cardo Moore, decried the drug ar- rest at a middle school. 1 "It's the end of the school year. Kids should be getting ready to go play," Moore said.

"It's obvious we're hot talking to our children enough. It's disheartening that even today we hav to tell them to say no to drugs. But it's clear by' instances like this that we have to constantly educate them about, the dangers of drugs." Contact SUZETTE HACkNEY at 313-222-6672 or hadkneyfreepress.c6m. oatres of $2495. Place in i.n A perintendents, teachers and prin' cipals came in to look at these and they came to the same con elusion," Engler spokeswoman; Susan Shafer said.

"Using thi term 'testing they -said, 'We hope you can explain these." But Engler expressed concern -about the way the information was released. "Somebody over" in the Treasury Department "was being toq forthcoming with somebody who, '-had an interest in tracking. down," Engler said. In Oakland County, state offi- cials found suspect answers in' -one of three fifth-grade classes at; Oak Park's Pepper Elementary -School. Superintendent Alex Bailey said the students likely usedj similar themes from a class les? son.

V- Same story at Pontiac's Wlut; man Elementary School, said Su perintendent Walter Burt. "We did not find any evidenee to support the claim that there was any cheating whatsoever," he said. He has not finished investigaU ing two other Pontiac elementary schools Herrington and Twad under state scrutiny. Contact JULIE ROSS at 313-223-453 or rossfreepress.com. LoriHiggins'L and the Associated Press contributed -to this report.

-m. -ml WILLIAM ARCHIEDetroit Free fyes YOU LEAP year suffer paralysis after diving often after dashing from beaches into lakes, then trying shallow dives and 8 ramming submerged objects. tH oi.ro Riding piggy-back: A rider who ei panics typically grabs the carrier by the neck, then chokes that person's airway, necessitating what lifeguards call a "double-drowning rescue." 1 Source: American Red Cross; Foundation for 1 Spinal Cord Injury Prevention, Care and Cure. an overarching right to have cisions of their elected representatives take effect," rather than the five percent of the voting population that signed petitions to block the law? "We look at what the language of the Constitution attempts to say," he said. Contact CHRIS CHRISTOFF at 517 writing test.

Dobbs said students were told in accordance with MEAP instructions to meet in peer groups to discuss what they were going to write. In one case, four students in the same discussion group wrote on the same topic and used some of the same terms, Dobbs said. A reading specialist with the Macomb Intermediate School District reviewed the exams and found that the students' writing abilities varied widely. In the second case, two students in the same group wrote about a mutual friend's experience. Mary Barry-Cybulski, assistant superintendent of the Macomb Intermediate School District, agreed that there was no cheating in Macomb County districts.

She said Wednesday that investigations into allegations at three other Macomb County schools showed the same results. "These hardworking teachers are angry and dispirited, and the students, some of the best in the schools, are confused and hurt," she said. "They have done nothing to deserve this public humiliation." A spokeswoman for Engler said the tests warranted an investigation. "An independent panel of su- BEFORE For a safer summer, avoid these swim hazards: On water slides: Horseplay, especially when water sliders go headfirst, can lead to head impacts and serious, paralyzing head and neck injuries. In shallow dives: "Feet first" is the slogan of the Foundation for Spinal Cord Injury Prevention, Care and Cure in Harper Woods.

Nationwide, nearly 800 swimmers each law. Baughman said blocking the law, and the $1 million, would not politically embarrass State Police by hampering their ability to function the scenario he said the Constitution aims to prevent. He said disallowing the public vote would "make a mockery of the referendum power." Justice Stephen Markman questioned Baughman's logic. "What if I said the people have 2 other Detroit school children are detained and sent to youth home By SUZETTE HACKNEY FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER A 17-year-old Hampton Middle School student was arrested Tuesday for passing around a grocery bag filled with one pound of marijuana to other students during class, police said Wednesday. Two other students, both 14, also were detained in connection with the incident and later were sent to the Wayne County Youth Home, Police said they were still investigating and did not know whether charges would be.

brought against the two in juve- nile court. Police said they suspect the 17- year-old, who is expected to be charged with drug possession, sold drugs to other students throughout the day. When he was spotted with the bag in class, he was confronted by a Detroit Public Schools police officer and the dean of students. He was forced to produce the bag which he had Lifeguard candidates practice this week at the Red Cross Aquatics Camp west of Holly. The school is I -its 62nd year.

The 150 students in this year's class will help ease a shortage of water safety experts. From Page IB starting pay is about $10.60 per hour. One of Detroit's veteran guards was at this week's Red Cross camp, learning advanced skills. Damian Burnley, 32, of Detroit had lips turning blue Tuesday as he practiced rescuing a swimmer who has suffered a potentially paralyzing spinal-cord injury. "There's a lot to learn," said Burnley, who hopes to teach swimming this winter in Detroit city pools.

Indeed, today's Red Cross-certified guards must take about 28 hours of training, including rescue skills, first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. In doing mouth-to-mouth rescue breathing, and in first-aid for bleeding victims, they must also guard against the exchange of body fluids a protection against the threat of HIV infection. The training costs about $135 for a basic course. "The training is expensive and it's a big responsibility that not everyone can handle," said Amy Freeman-Rosa, 44, of Fenton, a swim coach who is teaching at this week's Red Cross camp. The Red Cross trains about 1,500 new lifeguards a year in southeast Michigan, and recertifies about 1,000.

But officials warn that isolated beaches and hotel pools need not have guards. Swimmers who test lonely waters have a far higher risk of drowning- There were 4,406 drownings in the United States, and 146 of them were in Michigan, in 1998 the most recent year in which GUN I High From Page IB Peter Ellsworth, attorney for the Michigan United Conservation Clubs, which wants to block the referendum, argued the case comes down to a clause in the state Constitution that prohibits referendums for laws that appropriate money for state institutions. Ellsworth argued that, contrary to the appeals court deci data is available, according to the National Safety Council. Those figures include boating-related drownings. To learn about lifeguard training, swimming lessons and other aquatic classes, call the Southeastern Michigan Chapter of the American Red Cross at 313-676-4101, 9-5 weekdays.

Or go to www.semredcross.org Contact BILL LAITNER at 248J86-2608. Staff writer Ben Schmitt contributed to this report. TIIE DETROIT nMiiliffiC Dope house deaths It was Detroit's worst mass killing: Eight people were found executed June 14, 1971, in a west-side dope house Four men and four women were shot in the head at close rane in a house on the 1900 block of Hazelwood. They were found in the living room. The hands of three victims were bound in front of them with surgical tubing.

One woman's hands were wrapped around am her woman's waist. Police recovered heroin and syringes from the house; court hears arguments in weapons case! sion, there is nothing in the Constitution to imply that only appropriations for core functions of state agencies are exempt from referendums. "The power of referendum is not an absolute power," he said. Baughman argued that the $1-million appropriation for State Police in the gun bill was a clever attempt to thwart the public's ability to decide a controversial No arrests were made. The book is here! The Detroit Almanac with 648 facts and photos is available for orders at 800-245-5082 or www.freep.combookstore..