[Notes on Joan Bluethenthal papers (set 1)]

              -3-
These have been aided by a lay-professional Advisory Committee on Human
Relations established by the Board of  l^ucation.     Churches have been
\  mobilized  also to encourage orderly change by the Concerned   Citizens.
There are two opposing groups.    One is called PL15^,  standing for Positive
Leadership for ^Sucating Americans,  that seeks to legally end  bussing.
And  the other, ACT, Americans Concerned  About Today,  advocates impeachment
1 of the Supreme Court justices.    The Director says that after attending a
three-day meeting in Raleigh by the State Advisory Committee to the
Commission on Civil Rights,  "the most obvious fact pointed up by these
hearings was that where a community lacks sensitivity to minority
/"• viewpoints,  it lacks the desire and   the will on the part of the dominant
\    element in the community to make school desegregation work well on a
mutually acceptable basis rather than merely by law enforcement and
arbitrary discipline,  then there will be continuing trouble that may
V_ soon lead  to community-wid e violence."
In a folder entitled  "Notes for Great Decisions Talk~2/20/75" there
is a chart of budget expenditures over ten years showing that in 1964-65
the School Board  spent 9.5 million in current expenses,  and  in 197^-75
it spent 26.3 million.    Enrollment was stable,  but costs increased due
to inflation and   expanded,  improved  services to  children.    There were
approximately 28,000 students in both periods, but the per pupil
expenditure had  gone up to $1,000 in  '74-'75 versus $339 in '64-'65.
For example,  there were twenty-eight reading teachers working in '75
lwho had not been there in '65.    In 1964-65,  the athletic colleges
were still segregated,  while ten years later all four high schools
played  in the same conference and  scheduled   contests with each other.
In ,7^-*75» more than 3,000 volunteers in the community assisted
with tutorial work and  served  as aides to schools.    There were also
twelve specialists in art, music, and W in  '74,  versus none in '64,
and  thirty kind ergarten classes versus none.    The school system was
also given a $900,000 federal grant designed   to  ease the problems
relating to possible student resegregation within individual schools.
This is to help the students to deal with basic skill problems of
math and  reading and   employs seventeen reading teachers,  one reading
director,  thirteen math teachers,  and  fifty-two reading, math and   clerical
[ aides.    About ten percent of the school population is being served
through this program.    The report discusses as well the easing up of
classroom rigidity,  a more open class environment,  individual report
cards vis "a vis individual progress levels,  and  the creation in the
senior high school of total freedom of selection of courses and
teachers.    There is also an optional high school for students who are
disaffected  from traditional schools.
There is also a special Office of Student Affairs and  a Pupil
Personnel Service which provides a great deal of counseling for
student-initiated  activities as well as for social problems such as
pregnancy,  stud ent-teacher conflict,   etc.