The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 3

THE PANTAGRAPH. TUESDAY, JULY 5. 1983 A3 Educators call schools bargain Fourth sees end of officer's career Operating expenses per pupil for McLean and DeWitt Counties (Source: Regional Office of Education.) 1976-77 1981-82 Bloomington $1,651 $2,772 Bellflower Grade $2,650 $4,400 Bellflowef High $3,455 $7,077 Chenoa $1,855 $3,443 Clinton $1,417 $2,508 Frmr Cty-Mamfld $1,534 $2,645 Gridley $1,797 $2,856 Heyworth $1,565 $2,571 leRoy $1,477 $2,476 Lexington $1,498 $2,829 Normal $1,454 $2,323 Octavia $2,088 $4,358 Olympic $1,543 $2,828 S'brook-Arrowsmith $1,665 $3,336 Tri-Valley $1,653 $2,185 Wapella $1,742 $3,196 Average $1,815 $3,233 night. Another time, he was credited with helping to save the life of a 1-year-old girl who had stopped breathing. Grimm rushed her and her mother to a doctor while the mother successfully performed artificial respiration and got the little tyke breathing again.

Earlier this year, he received a commendation from Normal Police Chief David Lehr after he revived a 4-year-old Normal boy who had stopped breathing after a freak accident in his family's car. Of his retirement, Grimm said, he plans to take it easy for a while. "Then, I'm going to clean out the garage. My wife has been threatening to wrap it all up and put it out on the curb for the garbage men," he said. After that chore, he said he plans to spend some time on his favorite hobby, restoring old cars.

He owns a 1941 Olds-mobile and a 1963 Chevrolet. Grimm, who turns 55 on July 15, lives with his wife, Zelma, at 27 Delaine Drive in the home he helped build. They have three daughters and two sons. By SCOTT RICHARDSON Pantograph staff Some jobs must be done, holiday or no holiday. But for one of the few who had to work, yesterday held greater significance than the celebration of the nation's 207th birthday.

It was Don Grimm's last full day as a Normal policeman. While' others were enjoying the July Fourth festivities, Grimm was at his post at police headquarters, serving as holiday day watch commander. But he didn't mind. "I wanted to go out with a bang," the 20-year veteran said. That's different from when he Joined the force in 1963.

The sound then was more of a whistle. Grimm quit a Job as a railroad engineer to become a policeman, working six days a week for about $1.60 an hour, he said. Back then, policemen were both enforcers of the law and ambulance workers, so Grimm got a taste of both. With three other policemen, he once helped an Illinois State University professor deliver her baby at home on a cold winter's education to pupils. It cost District 87 $97,200 last year to offer driver education, but it received only $40,000 from the state to operate the program.

"Why use education dollars for behind-the-wheel training? Each year the list (of state mandates) grows larger," said Jones. George Evans, Unit 5 superintendent, questions the need for schools to teach consumer education to pupils, which is required by state law. And Jones said schools offer too many courses. He said some courses in technical areas "are better left to the universities." But the trend of the 1960s and 1970s was for schools to do more, to teach children how to drive and how to shop. Naturally, the bill increased.

The trick today is to cut non-classroom expenses since most educators make it clear that teachers deserve better pay. The District 87 Board of Education is debating the possibility of closing Bent, Lincoln and Centennial schools to save on utility costs and building maintenance non-classroom expenses. Superintendent George Stimeling says his plan could save $700,000 annually. Board members are split on the plan. But the board approved paying teachers $82,000 next year in extra-duty compensation, which ranges from $100 for an assistant play director (per production) at Bloom-ington High School to $2,500 for the varsity football and basketball coaches.

If teachers deserve more for the work they do in the classroom, should cuts be made in other areas to ease the burden of taxpayers? Board member Jones says the offset of eliminating extra-curricular activities must be analyzed. He says after-school activities are a good outlet for energetic By DAVE HANCOCK Pantograph staff About 60 percent of the property taxes that McLean County residents pay goes to finance school districts. Add state and federal taxes and it seems taxpayers pay a tidy sum for education. But school officials say education is a bargain that the public has Third of series purchased' at rummage-sale prices for years. "You're (the public) getting more than you're paying for now and it's probably coming out of the hides of the teachers and administrators," says Donald Gill, state superintendent of Illinois schools.

President Ronald Reagan has a different' opinion. "We don't have an education problem because we're not spending enough," he said in a recent speech. "We have an education problem because we're not getting our money's worth for what we spend." Five years ago it cost an average of $1,815 to educate a pupil in the McLeanDeWitt County Regional school district for one year. That is an "operating cost," which includes the price of instruction, busing, utilities, maintenance, construction of schools all the costs of the schools. Today the price is $3,200 per student, a 78 percent increase.

But education owns no monopoly on rising prices. The Illinois Legislature has played a major role in the rising costs, says Norm Jones, a Blooming-ton District 87 board member. If the legislature would stop dumping mandates on local districts, the schools could offer a better product at a more cost-efficient rate, he said. For example, the state requires school districts to offer driver Superintendent Evans agrees. He says it's fair for the public to single out extra-curricular activities and question them, but "the surprising thing is that the net cost isn't very much in comparison with what we have." William Dunifon, dean of the College of Education at Illinois State University, said a school district can cut non-classroom expenses by better utilizing its schools and reducing costs such as utility payments.

But he said "a school system has to get its priorities straight." Many times a teacher is hired "because he or she can coach" and a more qualified candidate cannot. However, cutting non-classroom expenses does not mean dismissing teachers, which Unit 5 did this winter. Nowhere in the report by the National Commission on Excellence in Education is it suggested that laying off teachers is the path to excellence. "If you're going to cut, you're going in the opposite direction of what the commission says," said Sheriff seeks interview in stabbing death link Sen. John Maitlund, It Blooming ton.

"We have to understand that they (teachers) are going to have to be paid." The obstacle to more money for education is not a penny pinching public, says superintendent Kvaln. The problem is that schools lio longer enjoy a favored status In the public's conscious. "The problem is of trust," Evans said. "Parents don't trust the schools. Education has had lis fair share of tearing down ism Ii teacher strikes).

Now we need, to start emphasizing the positive things that happen in the classroom." But state superintendent Gill says America is not "a society committed to learn." When the schools regain the pub lie's trust and society commits itself to the benefits of learning, the cost of education will become a secondary Issue. A concern for what students need then will overshadow today's dominant question in education: How much? One of the escapees, Itichard Toth, 23, was captured at 8:40 p.m. Sunday about a mile and a half south of the prison. Earlier Sunday, 18 year-old Gregory Guy Rhodes was found about three miles north of the prb-on, Howell said. Rhodes, serving a 00-year term for murder, was taken back into custody about 10 40 a in he said.

Officials narrow search for 4th prison escapee PAXTON Ford County Sheriff Lloyd a alck will travel to Metropolis in Massac County today to question a susDect in connection with the stabbing death of a Hispanic man near here. The identity of the dead man, ..,1 V. A A p.m. Saturday in a field two miles west oi axton. was sun unKnown last night.

An autopsy performed yesterday showed the man, described as a Hispanic male around 25 years old, died of six stab wounds to the abdomen, according to a spokeswoman with the Ford Countv Sher iff's Department. The man, who was around 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighed 150 pounds, had been dead four or five days before his partially clad body was found. sidered dangerous. "They (authorities invovled in the search) thought they had a siting early this morning in a wooded area about three or four miles south of the prison," Howell said yesterday. "There's a railroad line along there and they thought they saw a guy walking along it.

They're searching in a wooded are around there now." partment spokesman Nic Howell. Three of the four men who escaped Saturday were back in custody Sunday night after an intensive manhunt in Southern Illinois, Howell said. But still free was Donald Eugene Groth, 26, of Springfield, who is serving a 60-year sentence for murder and robbery. Howell said Groth should be con- It was not known last night what the link may be between the man in custody in Massac County and the stabbing. Both Falck and Massac County Sheriff Jim Cornille were unavailable for comment.

Police are investigating two possible links to the stabbing, including a June 26 report of someone being shot on Illinois 9 between Gibson City and Paxton. According to the report, two men flagged down a motorist and told him to go to Gibson City for medical assistance for a third person who was lying wounded in the back seat of the trio's car. The other possible link concerns a body found around 6 p.m. Saturday along Interstate 57 near Mat-toon. The victim was shot to death, authorities said.

ups traffic toll The aunt, who was not identified, was backing a Chevrolet station wagon out of her garage so she could retrieve a barbeque set, according to police Lt. Lee Am-merman. The toddler was one of 19 people to die in traffic-related accidents in Illinois during the long Independence Day weekend, which had claimed 366 lives on the nation's highways by 10 last night. I'lr I j. I )) i I i J.

4X' tat I I -I 1 i- AP CHESTER (AP) Authorities narrowed their search yesterday for the last of four inmates who made a weekend escape by sawing through the bars in a window of a downstate maximum-security prison. Eighty law enforcement officials were searching in an area along the Mississippi River within about 12 miles of the Menard Correctional Center, said Corrections De- Cyclist dies after crash A 31-year-old Bloomington man was killed yesterday when he struck his head on a curb at Washington Street and Camelot Drive after losing control of the motorcycle he was riding. The name of the rider was being withheld pending notification of his family. The cyclist apparently was shifting gears when he lost control of the vehicle around 2 p.m. at the intersection on the city's east side.

A witness driving behind the motorcycle said it crashed and the rider fell, striking his head on the curb. The results of an autopsy were not complete, but Coroner William Anderson said the man probably died of massive head injuries. A Bloomington police officer was performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation when rescue workers arrived at the crash scene. The man was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital Medical Center, where he died a short time later, according to reports.

An inquest will be scheduled. He was taken to Beck Memorial Home. Sibley initiates shopping van A telecare van is now available to take Sibley shoppers to Gibson City grocery stores at 9:30 a.m. Tuesdays. For more information, call Ida Hausen at 745-2332 before 11 a.m.

Monday. The Daily Pantograph Published by Evergreen Communications 301 W. Washington Bloomington, IL 61701. Second-class postage paid at Bloomington, IL (USPS 14470) TELEPHONE J0) Mt-Mll NEWSROOM Metre John Hooper, ed. Sunday David Bill, ed.

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CIRCULATION Bill Heritor, mgr. CARRIER1 WKJ Datv ft Sunday Sunday only SI, 0 Call Circulation for mallmotor route rates Beer zimra gfSTof m-12 hsr pi Jil" rpa 31 Canadian '4 I Beam MLtd ffSr) jE79 )99 "J79 M79J (SOniterl 750 ML 750L JTSUler hk Ron Rico 1 Polo Petri Jl Rum Blended Gm 7 fO 750 ML folio 750 ML VV 1 .75 Liter I 3 Liter Beam's I Trader Blend fyVlBrandy Vlc ESS ornfph llltl Hi Cocktails 1.75 Liter I ne Liter 750 ML 750 ML I jft Lowenbrau jmt 549 69 sgf NR Bottles L'9ht pack i Forth on Fourth Ron Broyles, left, and Kenn Rick spent their holiday climbing one of the two 73-story towers of the Renaissance Center in Detroit that city's tallest building. Story on page A4. Child's death to 19 for holiday weekend CHICAGO (AP) A 21-month-old -girl was killed yesterday when a car driven by her aunt backed over her as she played in a driveway at a July Fourth family gathering in south suburban Oak Lawn, police said. Rowda Sweis of Oak Lawn was pronounced dead of head and other injuries at Christ Hospital following the mid-afternoon accident, a hospital spokesman said..