The Capital Times from Madison, Wisconsin • 3

Tuesday, July 25, 1995 The Capital Times All 8 ifY 3A City editor Charles D. Sherman 252-6419 Associate city editor Ron McCrea 252-6430 E-Mail Address: Citydeskcaptimes.madison.com Liver neighbors vent fears, anger IPsSSST! Compiled by The Capital Tunes staff Hempstead Road. "If we could get some assistance from the city, I think a lot could get done here. Sandy Moyer, the PTA president at Falk Elementary School, said it was obvious to her that some units were packed with people. When you cannot park a car near the sidewalk, there is an occupancy problem, she said.

Give us a solution thats all were asking. The line of questions touched a nerve with many of the black residents in the audience. One teenage girl from Chicago, visiting her aunt, said she had been instructed to stay inside the house, away from the sight of the neighbors, because of attention to the occupancy issue. I cant visit my auntie? she asked. I dont see her that much, but when I come, she says, You cant sit outside our home or walk down the street.

Renee Savannah, a Hammersley Road resident who works in the Public Defenders Office, warned that a rash of zoning inspections would inflame the neighborhood. You are touching on racism when you start talking about going into people's houses, she said. It is normal for blacks to have extended families. It may not be normal for white families, but it is normal for black families. Bigelow said he would not call for a general sweep of zoning inspections in the area, but he would send inspectors to look at the dozen or so units owned by the citys Community Development Authority.

Well ask to have the CDA housing checked, Bigelow said. But Im not going to call for a sweep. Freshman alderman Reif was left speechless when pressed by residents about the Continued on Page 5A more youth activities. Hammersley Road resident Cindi Clark stepped in as a mediator, saying that since the incident, she has started introducing herself to neighbors, getting to know their children, and offering to help out whenever possible. She urged her neighbors to do the same.

If you are a single mom and your kids are home alone, call us. We will keep an eye out, Clark said. We are going to work together on this. It doesnt matter what color you are, how big you are, how small you are, how rich you are or how poor you are. While most attending applauded her ideas, many pressed City Council members Wayne Bigelow and Ron Reif to weed out buildings with more residents than city zoning codes allow.

If there is, in fact, an occupancy problem, could we get our alders to enforce it? asked Howard Hippman, who lives on Pizza plunge By Stacey Anderson The Capital Time Racial and cultural tension crackled Monday evening as more than 100 older home-owners and young renters on Madisons far southwest side turned out for a neighborhood meeting on juvenile crime. A fight between black and white teenagers that broke out on the Fourth of July near Elver Park has left lingering bad feelings among the adults who live in the neighborhood south of the Beltline between Gammon Road and Whitney Way. City Council members struggled to reconcile the race and class differences that came to the fore at the meeting, held at the Animal Crackers day care center, 6402 Hammersley Rd. While wealthier homeowners demanded better police protection and a city crackdown on overcrowded rental units, single mothers and parents asked for Hmong program faces cut By Pat Schneider The Capital Timet An education program serving Hmong and Laotian children on Madisons north side will be searching for new funding to offset a proposed cut in city money. The program is essential to the neighborhood, Steve Maurice, director of the Kennedy Heights Community Center, said Monday.

Ill do whatever I can to make sure it continues. Well be looking for other funding. Seventeen 3- and 4-year-olds, most of them Hmong, are enrolled for the three-days-a-week program offered at the community center. The program is designed to get children who live in the 104-unit low-income Kennedy Heights housing project off Northport Drive ready for kindergarten. An assistant who is from Laos and able to speak with children in their native language provides a critical component of the program and will continue working at the current level, Maurice said.

Where its really going to hurt us is in supplies, said Maurice. The program has relied heavily on funding from the city for its operations, receiving $32,000 for this years program, Maurice said. The citys Day Care Advisory Board has proposed a $5,000 cut in funding for next year. The advisory boards recommendations go to the citys Community Services Commission this week. The commission then will offer recommendations to be included in the mayors budget, which goes to the City Council in October.

While the amount of city subsidies for preschool programs is holding steady at $317,140, expansion of some programs has required a shift in funding, said Dorothy Conniff. Recommended for more funding is Baby Steps, a program for teenage mothers slated to get $3,800 in its first city funding, and the Atwood Preschool Program, slated for a $3,000 increase in city funding to $10,000. The consensus of members of the Day Care Advisory Board, meeting last week, was that the administrative costs of the Kennedy Heights program were unacceptably high for a program of its size. If it were a for-profit program, theyd go bankrupt, said community services staff member Monica Host. Maurice said Monday he was mystified by that criticism.

Conniff said she was hopeful the program would take the cut in stride. She The legal Sheila relationship The former say how The Sheila University Wisconsin State Journal cartoonist John Kovalic has hit the big time! This weeks copy of the National Enquirer has the story about the wacky way the shy guy proposed to his enamorata, Judith Heise. If youll remember, Kovalic proposed through his cartoon strip, Wild Life. He had cartoon character Carson the Muskrat do what he didnt have the nerve to do in person. But just in case she didnt read the paper that morning, he had his pal John Urban from radio station WMMMFM 105.5 read it over the air.

She heard it, all right. She accepted. Dane County Executive Rick Phelps has a new bully pulpit from which to continue his attacks on Republicans. Phelps has pounded Republicans unmercifully in recent weeks for their efforts to balance the state and federal budgets in ways he says put an unfair burden on local governments and harm the poor, children and elderly. On Monday, Phelps assumed the presidency of the National Council of Elected County Executives.

The groups national meeting is being held in Atlanta in coqjunc-tion with the National Association of Counties. There are now more than 400 elected county executives in the United States, representing more than 35 percent of the countrys population. If you have an item you like to see in PSSSST, call Kathy Foster at 252-6427. Kristine Beck, 33, of Madison has been a volunteer with the Madison AIDS Support Network for She began her volunteer duties at MASN as a clerical assistant answering telephones, filing letters and assisting visitors. After six months with the agency, Beck began volunteering in MASNs buddy program.

A buddy provides emotional support and one-on-one contact for people with AIDS. A buddy might go to the movies, walk in the park, or just spend an evening talking with the MASN client. Beck, a free-lance writer and orchestra manager for the Madison Community Orchestra, visits her buddy once a week, usually spending up to two hours at each visit. Beck said she volunteers with MASN because she wants to feel more connected with the world and to the community. i d.idtiMiugri My name is Scooter.

Im a domestic shorthair male cat who would love to go to a caring home. Come to the Humane Society and adopt me today. Im 10181 and available for adoption at the Dane County Humane Society. The shelter offers low-cost spaying and neutering services for eligible families. For shelter hours or more information, call 246-3340.

i IDUNAGlffcePEOPEBi I'm just glad were fighting with our old friends and not our old enemies. Shift on residency OK with Soglin By Joe Schoenmatui The Capital Timet Mayor Paul Soglin has fought hard to make sure city employees live within the city limits in order to hold a city job. So observers of city affairs expressed surprise that he seems relieved after a state arbitrator ruled that 800 city union workers may live outside the border, so long as they forfeit some longevity pay. Why should I be angry? the mayor asked today. Its a lot better than the alternative, which was no residency requirement at all.

Longevity pay, a reward for length of service, kicks in after 13 years. But under the plan approved last week by the state arbitrator, the longevity pay would be capped at 6 percent for those living outside the city. The tussle over a residency requirement had stalled contract talks between AFSCME Local 60, representing almost 800 clerical and professional positions, and the city for more than a year. Soglin today said the new arrangement was fashioned after some careful thought about what could happen if the state arbitrator ruled in the unions favor. The union was saying no residency requirement at all, and weve already been through arbitration like that with another union, and we lost, he said.

We were fearful that if we didnt make some adjustments, we would have lost again. Police, fire and bus employees have already bargained their way out of residency requirements, although the city has had one in place since 1956. The Board of Estimates Monday afternoon approved the agreement, which also includes 3 percent pay raises for 1994 and 1995. The package now goes to the City Council for a final vote. Schools, too: Principals, assistant principals and mid-level administrators in the Madison School District will no longer have to live in district under a proposal approved by the school board's human resources committee Monday.

The policy would still require the superintendent, deputy superintendent and assistant superintendents to live in the district. The measure passed committee on a vote of 4-3 and now goes to the full school board. Verona disciplinary learning and multi-age classrooms, was approved by the school board in April. It will be the first elementary charter school in Wisconsin. Jean Eichelkraut, who has three children in the Verona schools, attended the school meeting and said she liked the idea for the second school.

Parents have always been made to feel welcome in classrooms. I can walk into any one of my kids schools and get involved. This is just taking it one step further, she said. Pat McIntosh, principal of Sugar Creek, also listened in on the parents presentation. We are open to setting up alternatives, she said.

I think this second one would be a departure from what weve got now in the schools. In other business, the board voted to send about 120 students who live in the Mapld Grove-Prairie Hills neighborhood to the redistricted Stoner Prairie Elementary, beginning in August 1996. The students now attend Country View Elementary Continued on Page 5A Emily Lewandowskl of Hill Farms enjoys a slice was competing Monday In the All City Diving of pizza while she watches the boys warm up. Finals at the West Side Swim Club. Sheila Earl files The Capital Timet for separation ture and was formerly assistant to the director of the La Follette Institute of Public Affairs.

Tony Earl, 59 and a Madison attorney, was governor of Wisconsin from 1983 to 1987. Before that he served as secretary of the Department of Natural Resources, secretary of the state Department of Administration and Assembly majority leader, representing Wausau. He was also Wausau city attorney and Marathon County district attorney. The Earls are active Democrats and their annual St. Patricks Day parties were landmark events on the political calendar.

wife of former Gov. Tony Earl has filed for separation. Coyle Earl stated no grounds for legal separation in the petition filed Friday in Dane County Circuit Court other than that the 33-year marital had been broken. couple listed separate Madison addresses. The first ladys attorney, Stephen Bach, would not long the Earls had lived apart.

Earls have four grown daughters and a grandchild. Earl, 57, is an assistant to the dean of the of Wisconsin-Madison School of Agricul 2nd charter school proposed in pie will be brought in to teach children and that standards may suffer. District Superintendent Robert Gilpatrick said he supported the core-knowledge school idea. He first learned of the groups intentions back in May, about a month after the school board approved a contract for Veronas first charter school, which will open in August. I find this district very different from any other Ive worked with, Gilpatrick said.

A parent-run charter school is such a unique thing, very complex and complicated to get up and running. The district has really committed itself to offering choices for both students and parents, said Kreienkamp, who is the mother of two children at Stoner Prairie Elementary. And thats certainly enough impetus to try for a second charter school. Veronas first charter school is still unnamed but ready to open its doors with 34 students within the Sugar Creek Elementary School. Parent June Coleman organized that effort.

That school, which will emphasize inter should be able to hear the cultural references we make every day to texts, figures in history and know what they are without having to have them explained," she said. Verona School District board members welcomed the plan Monday night and encouraged the parents, Molzahn and Kelli Kreienkamp, to keep the board informed about its progress. Molzahn is also a certified public accountant in Verona, and Kreienkamp is a home tutor. The two have found about 40 other parents willing to join them in pursuing an academic alternative for their children. Now the group must file its charter school proposal formally by Nov.

1 Charter schools became a part of the states educational offerings in 1994, when the Legislature allowed 10 school districts to establish such experimental schools. The claim for such schools is that by being freed from state regulations they foster better performance. Critics, especially teacher unions, say they worry that unqualified, uncertified peo- By Katherine Williams Correspondent for The Capital Timet VERONA Advocating a model "national curriculum that would give students a common base of knowledge and cultural reference points, two parents introduced their proposal for a second parent-run charter school here. The Verona Core Knowledge Charter School could be operating for elementary students by the 1996-97 school year, if the plan falls into place over the next eight or 10 months. The charter school plan presented Monday would offer a formal curriculum based on cultural literacy.

Developed by the nonprofit Core Knowledge Foundation in Charlottesville, this teaching system is finding its way into classrooms across the country. Michelle Molzahn, one of the two parents, said today in an interview that educationally successful nations like Japan and Sweden have national school curriculums and the children of those countries have a common base of knowledge. Children i I.