The Times from San Mateo, California • Page 30

April 7, 1976 TIME! -an 'Ugly Duckling' Community Colleges Come of Age And Now, Swan Lake or Swan Song? By JOHN MORGAN It wasn't long ago that California's junior colleges were regarded as the stepchild of the state's huge system of public education. They were an odd, alien form of academic life, misunderstood by the layman, sneered at by their educational betters and avoided by many prospective students. These schools were thought to be a refuge for the person who couldn't handle academic requirements at other more prestigious institutions. They were supposed to represent a student's last gasp. They had little stature.

That is true no longer. Today, the junior college has come of age. It is no longer the ugly duckling in higher education. California's junior colleges aren't even junior any more. They call themselves community colleges.

And the new name fits. The state's 103 two-year schools are specifically tailored to serve the individual needs of the communities they exist in. Begun in Fresno in 1910, the system now embraces 70 separate community college districts statewide. These districts range in size from the tiny Palo Verde Community College District in the desert country around Blythe with just over 800 students to the massive Los Angeles Community College District with more than 125,000 students. The districts are primarily locally-financed and locally-controlled.

No two of them are exactly alike. As a group, the schools educate 1.1 million students on a total operating budget of nearly $1 billion per year. This is the largest system of tuition-free public higher education in the free world. There is nothing else quite like it anywhere outside the socialist-communist nations. California, the nation's two-year pacesetter, has about one-third of the country's JC pupils.

The setup dwarfs anything else like it in America today. It has become a truly mammoth undertaking. Each district has attempted to develop its own resources, facilities and programs. The total investment in facilities has been staggering over the years. Estimates for capital costs for the 70 districts run as high as $2 billion.

San Mateo's three colleges cost more than $42 million. A strength of the system is that most of its capital improvements and special levies have been developed with the consent of the people themselves at the local level. Bond issues, tax overrides and other finance measures have been approved by a generous and willing public with astonishing regularity. Often, support from the state has been minimal at best. Local taxpayers have chosen to support the community college concept with their votes and their dollars.

They have done so to an extraordinary degree. Today, though, the era of building, and rapid growth appears to be drawing to a close. Changes are coming at the two-year level and officials in the system are already learning how to cope with them. Community colleges, as we have come to know them, arc facing the real possibility of significant shifts in their operations. These changes are coming from a number of different directions at the same time.

The primary source of fresh thought about the functions, role and future of the community college movement is the state itself. In Sacramento! particularly in the administration of Gov. Edmund Brown Jr. there are efforts under way to assume more statewide control over the two-year schools. First, Brown and his associates instituted what has become known as the 5 per cent cap on funding.

That has limited the state's financial participation In the growth of community colleges. The state provides funds on a per student basis up to that 5 per cent figure. Growth which exceeds 5 per cent in any district means local taxpayers must pick up the full per student cost after the 5 per cent limit lias been reached. Since community colleges are still growing, as other levels of California public education are not, the Brown cap has been a bone of contention for community college leaders. In the San Matco Community College District, for example, enrollments are growing faster than the 5 per cent limit.

In the last year, enrollments at the three local colleges have leaped by a tots! of 11 per cent. Local taxpayers pay 100 per cent of that last 6 per cent because of the cap. Besides thai, San Mateo, regarded as a wealthy district by the state, Is at the bottom of the slate's reimbursement schedule in the first place. The district receives only $125 per student in what is called basic aid. This means that, in all, local taxpayers (See Page SO.

Column 1) No Definite Link In Three Murders North San Mateo County law enforcement officials still have been unable to definitely link the murder of a Broadmoor girl last Thursday with the slayings of two teen-age girls earlier this year. Although Daly City Police Chief David Hansen said he has a suspicion that the murders are connected, he said no definite link so far has been established. Last Thursday the body of Denise Lampe, 19, was found slumped in the front seat of her car at the Serra- monte Shopping Center in Daly City. She had been stabbed JO times in the chest and arms. Miss Lampe is the third teen-age girl to be brutally stabbed to death in the las't three months in the North County.

Methods used in the slaying of Miss Lampe are similar to those used in the killings of Paula Louise Baxter and Veronica Cascio. On Jan. 8 the partially nude body of 18-year-old Miss Cascio was found face-down in a creek running -through the Sharp Park Golf Course in Pad- fica. The Skyline College student had been sexually assaulted and stabbed 30 times in the throat and abdomen. Exactly 30 days later the body of 17-year-old, Miss Baxter was by friends behind a Millbrae church.

She had been sexually assaulted, stabbed four times in the neck, chest and abdomen and had been struck on the head with a piece of concrete. Millbrae Sgt. Ron Caine. a member of a five-man police team investigating the deaths of Miss Baxter and Miss Cascio said he believes both girls were murdered close to where they were found. Chief Hansen said Tuesday he believes Miss Lampe also was murdered where she was found.

However, police have noted some dissimilarities in the three slayings, including the fact that Miss Lampe was not sexually assaulted like the two other girls and she was not stabbed in the throat. In all three slayings police have no witnesses. Sergeant Caine said he would not speculate as to whether the killing of Miss scheduled. Sergeant Caine had announced last month that HMB Council OKs Delayed Duplexes tests that Miss Cascio and Miss Baxter had been mur- police have been unable to determine the age of the murderer, they do believe he is a white male, with light brown or dark blond hair and is probably right handed. Sergeant Caine would not aln ft Rstitm Ui Vigil Coleen steele 18 member he Future Farmers of America, Atascadero, and a freshman student at California Polytechnic State San Luis Obispo, is Queen of the 30th Junior Grand National Livestock Exposition, April 9-13, at the Cow Palace in Daly City TL.

L. i -H i .1 ed blonde will exhibit a crossbred steer named "Lazzaro" in the stock show. After months of delay Tony Faial of Half Moon Bay is just a step away from building two duplexes on property newly subdivided in that city's Arleta Park neighborhood. 1 i a i despite opposition from surrounding property owners, i i approved a tentative parcel map. confirmed a staff finding of negative environ- a i a a accepted design and review a i on Faial's property.

At issue Tuesday night was the resubdivision of a i larger lots to allow for i of two duplexes, a proposition opposed by i because of an increase in density over a of the surrounding area. a i i could not overcome was that the resubdivision and i duplexes on the lots thus created is apparently legal in every respect and in conformance with the city zoning ordinance and gen- ernl plan, according to City Atty. James Kox. Given (he opinion of con- formanco by Fox. thecoun- i a Peninsula Her Chances Seem Excellent Death Penalty Sought in Trial Testimony began today in the trial of Rudolph M.

Gray, ,30, charged with murder in the shooting death of William R. Orme, 18, last Sept. 2 in San Mateo. Prosecutor John P. Oakes is seeking the death penalty.

A jury of eight men and four women was impaneled late Tuesday by San Mateo County Superior Court Judge G. Brooks Ice. The trial is expected to last two weeks. Oakes maintains that the shooting occurred during the height of a parking lot quarrel, though the argument allegedly didn't directly involve either the victim or the defendant, both of whom resided in Sar. Jose Gray's case first began in January with the near completion of selection of a jury when a mistrial was declared because defense attorney Dick W.

Bennett of San Mateo broke his ankle in falling down a stairwell while carrying his son. He is still hobbled with a cast. The jury was told Tuesday that the nature of special circumstances "will be explained to you at a later time." The death penalty phase of the trial would only ensue if jurors convicted Gray of first-degree murder. Any lesser crime conviction, or an acquittal, removes the special circumstances. Clerk Scares Robbers A clerk at the San Bruno Jack-in-the-Box Restaurant frightened two men away from the store early Tuesday when they attempted a robbery.

Clerk John Gipson. 21. of Daly City told police that two men about 21 and 35 years of age walked up to the window and asked for free hamburger. When Gipson said he wouldn't give them free food, they walked across the street. A few minutes later.

Gipson said, they returned, showed an automatic pistol and demanded money. Instead, the clerk ducked down and crawled to the back of the store where he grabbed a butcher knife. The two fled when they saw Gipson returning with the knife, police said. There are no suspects in the robbery, police said. LOOK AT THIS VALUE I 1976CAPRIS LEFT TO CHOOSE FROM 3995 utDRj nurni I i falttotnl ft that the investigation is Judith Van Why has a very good chance of being Johnson said that during the five years the chamber continuing.

named this year's Miss San Bruno. has sponsored the event "their program has been rcla- Meanwmie, thief Hansen The 23-year-old blonde College of San Mateo student lively low-kev, with the winner selected at a reception in tlcers nave lnter is the only local girl so far to sign up as a contestant in the early evening of the event. nection with 0 of 1nnUa paficant The dcadli applications is This year. Johnson said, the Jaycees are planning a Miss Lamoe April 15. "gaia event, with all the trimmings." The i said he is UaVC Jollnson a member of the North Peninsula In fact, the group plans to spend about $2.500 on the "looking verv closely at lla vcecs who this vear are sponsoring the event, said pageant and is asking all chamber members to contrib- three of four a al( hough 10 girls have taken out application forms.

ule $10. The police department none nas hecn re(urned Johnson said five judges will be selected and will also has released sketches said if on lwo or tllree contestants sign up by include stewardesses and a fashion director from a of two men being sought April 15, the Jaycees might move up the deadline to May modeling school. Katherine Crosby, wife of Ring Crosby, for i i in the just three weeks before the pageant. and William Sullivan, regional postmaster general, also Lampe killing. Police offi- This is the first year the Jaycees have sponsored the have been asked to be judges, cers emphasized that the pageant.

It was handled for years by the San Bruno The pageant is scheduled to lie held in the lower men are not suspects but Chamber of Commerce. mall at the Tanforan Park Shopping Center May 22 at 8 were said to be behaving Johnson said John Cadigan, both a chamber and p.m. erratically around the shop- Jaycee member, asked the chamber last year if his Miss San Bruno will he selected based 70 per cent on ping center the night of the community service group could sponsor the pageant and beauty. 20 per rent on talent and 10 per cent on personal- slaying, the chamber agreed. ity and poise.

Private Defender Panel Asks Help to Continue Job By DUANE SANDUL neys like Dick Bennett A a i its "We're not Irving to the Rudolph Gray is on are subsidizing the pro- budget request of $1. 3 put on the ri.untv mannger'tn want trial this week charged gram million for is a illlp We foe a rofes im us down. But my with murder. So Lelli and the pro- two-page a ol sinna responsibility to vn i is i He has little, if any. gram's directors are projected costs to the joh makc sllre W( V( IV i ney 'n seeking from the County a i done properly, what The board of directors He, like thousands of Board of Supervisors an delender ollice ever the a a a a has i persons arrested in San 18.4 per cent boost, or According to Lelli.

the (s my rcmicst We're asl- a each S204.000 for i i a cost for a vear. is appointed an IS76-77. a a i for 1976-77 0( the pri- j'' a In i insl- Lelli was prepared to be I 585.000. program reasonable, aiice. he has a skilled ask the supervisors for a i a inm.ui it the approach not defense attorney.

Dick 20 to 22 per costs. lowest cost T' ask for more than we was a prosecutor. directors pared down panel now are subsiriiz- ls wo i for a a i i The law provides that the request. ing the private defender 1 with purposes. There's not a "indigent" persons must Supervisors last year program and the ques- dollars in 1977.

margin lor i our be appointed counsel. granted a 15 per cent i is how long i i a i a proposal because there's The method in which increase, the first sub- they continue to do so." his a are not no padding, this is carried out is left stantial boost, according Lelli said. intended as an ultima- "(Yell I'm not up lo governing bodies. to Lelli. "We're: not seeking to Lelli said.

"We JVT For the past seven In a complex array of a up i but to have to give a realistic beciu'sc years San Mateo County statistics. Lelli pointed reach parity with what evaluation of our ability r( snon has provided attorney's out in his message to the we received in 1970." I we a a i ircMnterosted in the end an i a i county manager's office Asked what message operate the program, we nrml'ucl If we h-iv program called the Pri- a a a he hoped the get out of the i'h vale Defender Panel. averaged about $11.50 manager's office would business. di I 1 The a is com- per hour since the pro- a the cost "We've been i i rs( lml prised of volunteer law- gram's inception, while comparisons between the same basic service yors from m'erhead has climbed the two programs. Lelli lor the same price over the county.

markedlv. said, "We want them to seven years There has The Private 1 Dcfend- An a a i pro- He a i a as a know the prospective to he. at some point, a cr's program List year a one used in result the "gross profit" costs of a public delend- i i i a adjustment handled 12.324 cases It most counties is a has shrunk Irom annul el's program Our i i a i is a projected that it i i pro- $4.50 per hour lo under I a of -ol! one in that these h.indle i year UIMIH, an oltice ol law- $2.50 per hour. showing them the lype lawyers volunteer-; more than I.I. mill in MTS on The increase which he i a they don't have lo it l97i-77 p.iyrnll.

is seeking, Lelli said. receive as well as Hie a to Lelli that minor According to Private would adjust the gross i We're not trying looper- Imdccl increases the Defender Panel exocu- profit to per Imur a the cosl ate on a basis ol con i have mostly sup i a i i a a hourly income -hould a i a i I a i i i Mamon S. I.elli. atlor- 91 per hour. the present program.

understanding number of case-. application, which had been i several times during Planning Commission hearings because of neighborhood opposition. a a a i a G. a a i by opponents of the Faial plan, argued (hat the proposal was not in a i i general plan His arguments were countered by Fox. Four letters puportcdly from neighborhood residents were received by the council, and were read into the record by City Manager W.

Fred Mortenscn at the request of Nicholas Weil. a a i a i a a begin work is the acceptance of a i a subdivision map. a ministerial (unction of the council. In other business, the council: Authorized the city a a to a i a a A i a i city's name for official use of the city. Adopted a resolution re-establishing sewer connection and service fees.

a i approved a resolution of commendation for former I a i i a i i woman Grace McCarthy tor her more more than 20 yenrs of i service benefit ing the Coastside. Authorized city participation i i study proposed by Mortensen. lo be undertaken by the Governmental Research i of Sim Matco County, which would i i a i a impact of the adoption of the state Coastal Plan on the Cabrillo and La Hondo Pescadero school districts. Referred to the Planning Commission a report i a a Society a i a i a treatment of animals at the Friendly Acres Ranch Sugarloaf Meeting Off The San Mateo Planning Commission's scheduled i i Sugarloaf alternatives has been canceled because several commission members are ill a i a i was to have been covered will be explored at the i ilready set for April A i i scheduled later ROTARY SPEAKER 3ruce Hole, director of community relations for the Golden State Warriors, will speak to the San Mateo a Club Thursday af noon..