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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 30, 1977)
al me Urals «tal Sf Jsive i ood re 'wplicaij ; Private^ erwouldl, lining^ Allen esayswml ate I s mouniii, direct m "vice i r ganizatii;. Tice, ative Sli -class mg a except Ci najor postil run vice world and I, T to servt Imost mi ' U.S, mi product "ing thega 'ew meek e pieces di 100,1 THE BATTALION Page 5 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 1977 Special Election Guide William Lancaster William B. Lancaster, 48, 303 Dexter, payroll services manager for Texas A&M, past member of City Parks and Recreation Commit tee, three-year member of the school board. Why do you think you’re qual ified to hold a position on the school board? Well, I’ve already served three years (on the board) and certainly gaining that experience as far as something I have with the adminis tration is helpful in helping to run school business. Of course the school is a hig business. I’ve been in the community here most of my life and am concerned and experienced in the school sys tem itself. And I’ve had three chil dren go through the school system. What do you consider to be the highest priorities of the board? We need to maintain, I’ll call it a steady course, in the development of aquality education program that has already been underway and the progress that has already been made in that respect. Should the curriculum be ex panded on both the elementary and secondary levels? What courses should be be included? I think we need to have a good blend of enrichments with the basic mployen program and we already have some year, upi of these in the special education 1970, apri programs. We try to incorporate a little bit of the modern languages beginning in the lower grades and, of course, carrying hem through the schools. And of course developing or building programs; vocational, in 3163 career education and cer- // tainly to expand that as we need to. There are students who are un prepared at making a living, particu larly those that aren’t going to col lege. Do you approve of corporal punishment? In what cases should corporal punishment be used? No, not really. I do but not in the classroom. We have a system now where the teacher can send a child to the office and witness as to whether or not the principal or assistant principal, with the approval of the child and on ob jection from the parents, can give them three licks. I think this has been an effective thing. I have no objection to it being continued. Have you been satisfied with the performance of the current school board? If not, why? I Yes, I’ve been satisfied; I’ve been $20.00 part of it. 5.99 Do you think the present over- 99 crowdedness will be alleviated with •59 last year’s bond election, or is more 1 79 construction needed? School Board Vocation stressed in Position 5 Elizabeth Nangle Dec. - ait POPULATION = 3 7. 306 2.0 M.G.D. (MILLION GAL./DAY) EXPANSION LANCASTER The proposed construction is de signed to take care of the crowded situation through 1980. We need to begin now to provide additional space and plan beyond 1980. Do you support continued de velopment of vocational programs? Yes, indeed. Where we used to have 90 per cent of our graduates plan to go on to college, this has dropped to 50 to 55 per cent, so ob viously we need to provide these children the opportunity to obtain a marketable skill. What are your thoughts on fu ture programs for students with learning disabilities and acceler ated students? We certainly need to provide these the best we can. There can be expenses here, of course, but I think we need to absorb these as best we can. Many of the programs are man dated by the state. We certainly ought to add to those and go beyond that. What do you plan to do about improving the maintenance of physical facilities? Do what we can and spend the money that’s available. There has been a great deal of progress made in the maintenance of physical facilities, but there always needs to be more. Certainly this is a large plan and it needs further development as most any of these do. We just need to strive to watch over this and have regularly scheduled preventive maintenance things and regular programs to do the major things that need to be done. A great deal of this has been al ready included in the building pro gram. What do you think could be done (See “Lancaster” page 10) The A&M Consolidated School Board ballot includes candidates for Positions 2, 3, 4 and 5 with only W. D. Fitch in Position 4 running unopposed. Starred polling places April 2 are South Knoll Elementary (8), A&M Consoli dated Special Services Building (9), College Station Fire Station (10), Texas A&M Univer sity Center (20), College Station Municipal Building (21) and College Hills Elementary (24). Ballots may also be cast at the Wellborn Water Supply Building for residents in Pre cinct 2. John C. Reagor Dr. John C. Reagor, 39, 1400 Vil lage Drive, veterinary toxicologist. Why do you think you’re qual ified to hold a position on the school board? Because of my experience in edu cation, my concern for the school system and my willingness to serve as a school board member. What do you consider to be the highest priorities of the board? The highest priorities of the board are to make policy for the school administration to follow. Should the curriculum be ex panded on both the elementary and secondary levels? What courses should be included? No, they should not be expanded on the elementary level. On the secondary level, we should have some expansion in the vocational areas. With our present financial squeeze on the taxpayer, I do not think that we should add other courses at this time. I think that other courses and expansion can be included when we get tax relief from the state. Do you approve of corporal punishment? In what cases should corporal punishment be used? Yes. It should be used primarily in the elementary and lower grades when that is the only thing that re mains to obtain or maintain order in the classroom. Have you been satisfied with the performance ot the current school board? If not, why? No, because I think we have al lowed too much money to be spent. Do you think the present over crowdedness will be alleviated with last year’s bond election, or is more construction needed? Our overcrowdedness will be eliminated when the construction which was approved by the bond election is completed. Do you support continued de velopment of vocational programs? REAGOR that’s an area we need to put our effort into. I suggest that because a larger percentage, particularly in the Consolidated school children, (See “Reagor” page 10) Elizabeth Naugle, 38, 1113 Wes- tover, homemaker and former elementary school teacher. Why do you think you’re qual ified to hold a position on the school board? I’ve been attending meetings regularly for five years, missing only those where I had an actual conflict and I feel I understand the prob lems and responsibilities. What do you consider to be the highest priorities of the board? The first priority that is upper most in the minds of the community is quality education and taxation and how they inter-relate. My motto is fiscal economy without loss of qual ity program. In other words, the inequities of the ad valorem taxing situation have been felt and yet we want to be sure that we protect the quality of our educational programs as we try to make adjustments to favor the tax payers.” Should the curriculum be ex panded on both the elementary and secondary levels? What courses should be included? I do not envision any major inno vations. We have had quite a few innovations in the past several years that have been very good and we need to encourage those. Do you approve of corporal punishment? In what cases should corporal punishment be used? I think there are better means that we must, absolutely must, rec ognize in any discipline situation. But, I could never write a policy banishing corporal punishment simply because the teachers have entirely too much responsibility entrusted to them and they must have the authority to carry out those responsibilities. However, corporal punishment should not be overused. I think young children are especially sensi tive to it and it should be discour aged at all levels, but most espe cially with the very young because it can sometimes mess up their academic careers if they have too much of it. Have you been satisfied with the performance of the current school board? If not, why? Yes and no. I think that they have been trying very hard. They have put in long hours of effort: I think that there are way£ their perform ance could be improved. One way would be to provide for citizen input at key points on the agenda, because that’s the way it is done on most policy making bodies. I also think the board could work a little harder at public relations with the community. Interpreting the school’s programs through the NAUGLE community and getting community input. I think they are all dedicated members but there is still room for improvement. Do you think the present over crowdedness will be alleviated with last year’s bond election, or is more construction needed? Definitely, but we are growing so fast that we will need to do long range planning all along. We can’t just sit back and assume that this will take care of it. Do you support continued de velopment of vocational programs? Yes, to the extent that we are entitled to do so. Bryan is the area vocation school and we need to make our students aware of those opportunities also, so that they can take advantage of them. Currently, there seems to be a lack of information here and we need to provide this for our students because they have some exceptional programs. I really wish that we were push ing our vocational facilities as the first stage of building construction. What are your thoughts on fu ture programs for students with learning disabilities and acceler ated students? The Talent Unlimited program shows tremendous potential. I know that we are ahead of the game, honestly. I have a very reli able and informed source outside of the system that I contacted to find out how we stood in the area of spe cial education and. he painted a rather glowing picture. I did contact another person sub sequent to that and found that we still do have needs in that area. But, we definitely do have, over all, a good program. (See “Naugle” page 10) City Council Unopposed councilmen to be elected from three wards Anne Hazen—Place 5 Gary Halter—Place 1 '.nsofi ■eel^ ik Tap* cessed Place 1 Gary Halter, 35, 1204 East Ashburn Ave., political science professor at Texas A&M University, member of the Student Publications Board and has been a council member for two years. Do you have any specific pro grams planned as a council member? I do, in terms of finishing out the capital improvements program. I’d like to do something about utility conservation in home construction. What’s your feeling on extending liquor hours in lieu of the trial period we’re in now? Fine with me. I don’t think it’s really going to create problems for the city. There weren’t any prob lems after the hours were extended to 1:15 a.m. If the individual isn’t harming anyone else, then the gov ernment shouldn’t interfere. The police might be kept busier to some degree. I don’t feel like individuals will stay out in bars that late. What do you think about the cur rent ambulance situation? I see the city continuing to oper ate. Most cities have found that they have eventually had to go to some sort of city ambulance service. I think it’s a kind of service that is pretty hard to be left in private hands. Why are you running? Two years ago I ran primarily be cause I was interested in planning and zoning and trying to improve development controls. Also I ran to encourage property developments and amenities. At any rate it takes a long period of time to do some of those things. One thing that bothers me is how long it takes to do some thing, and how long it takes gov ernment to do things. I’d like to see the capital improvements program carried out. How do you feel about running unopposed? I m pretty happy about not hav ing to run, so I can do other things. But I don’t think it’s a very healthy situation to have people run unop posed. What are your thoughts on the efficiency and future of the ward system? It’s not a very efficient system. I predict there will be 200 people to vote in this election, maximum. Thirty-two hundred people voted in the last election. I think the ward system will be on the ballot in April of 1978. Whether or not the voters will vote to change it, I don’t know. What about controls on city growth? I don’t know how we can control the growth of the city. Most of the growth isn’t caused by the city, it’s cgused by Texas A&M University. What I am in favor of is a much more orderly growth, and a much more balanced growth in terms of geographical area, housing, indus tries and business. How do you feel about the prog ress in constructing sidewalks? Construction hasn’t moved very fast. We’re getting sidewalks in new areas. I think we should have always required sidewalks. One of the problems the city has is a tremendous capital im provements plan underway, and (See “Halter” page 3) College Station residents in Districts 1, 3 and 5 will elect councilmen from their wards April 2. Polling places for City Council elections are College Hills Elementary, District 1; Lin coln Center, District 3; and Bee Creek Park Swimming Pool Building, District 5. Larry Ringer — Place 3 Larry Ringer, 39, 702 Thomas, professor of statistics at Texas A&M University, former president of the College Station Recreation Council and council member for one year. Do you have any specific pro grams planned as a council member? I’d like to see continued de velopment of parks and recreation areas. I’d like to see an acquisition program for park land. I d like to see continued improvement in public safety. What I have in mind is light ing around public buildings, public areas-streetlight ing around the Northgate areas and public schools. I’d like continued development of bicycle and pedestrian pathways. What’s your feeling on extending liquor hours in lieu on the trial period we’re in now? I haven’t had any comments pro or con on the extension of liquor hours. I don’t even know which es tablishments extended their hours. I haven’t heard any comments that there has been an increase in trou ble with this. I’m not overly in favor of extending the hours. My personal feeling is that one o’clock on Satur day night is late enough. It does cause some cost in the increase of police service. I’d like to see some input be tween students and nonstudents, and I’d like to weigh both factions and see what the feeling really is. Are you in favor of College Sta tion going independent on water supply and could you suggest any particular programs? I think plans are being made to do (See “Ringer” page 3) RINGER Place 5 Anne Hazen, 45, 1205 Munson Ave., school nurse at A&M Consolidated, member of League of Women Voters, Planned Parent hood, Red Cross volunteer and council member for one year. Do you have any specific prog rams planned as a council member? I’m interested in getting the bikeway and sidewalk program im plemented and I am very interested in the ambulance situation. I’m in terested in completing the Com prehensive Plan; the transportation and land use plans for the city. What’s your feeling on extending liquor hours in lieu of the trial period we’re in now? I am opposed to extending it beyond 1:15 a.m. mainly because I think there have only been a few places that have extended the hours. They haven’t caused any sig nificant problems, but I think at 2:15 we might keep the police force busy a little bit longer. I realize that this is inconvenient for on-campus students, but it is not inconvenient for off-campus stu dents. The off-campus students can always go home and continue drink ing. Since last year, I have decided that one o’clock is all right for weekends because many affairs go on until 10:30 or 11 o’clock. By the time you get to a club it’s hard to get a few drinks. But if by one o’clock they’ve decided to continue drink ing, they can go home, where they’re safer, and drink. What’s your feeling on the cur rent ambulance situation? I feel that the College Station Fire Department is perfectly capa ble of handling the ambulance ser vice. I’m hoping we can form a citi zen’s committee that will find out the attitudes of the community. Also, I’d like to see if the county and the City of Bryan are willing to subsidize an ambulance service if Bill Thornal discontinues opera tions. I think the only economical way to run an ambulance service is to run it out of the hospital. HAZEN Why are you running? I’m running to continue the things that are not finished. Also because after a year on the council you’re just beginning to understand how a city runs. It’s a shame to have someone who has spent so much time learning not to be able to con tribute more to the city. I feel that next year I will be able to contribute even more. What do you feel was not ac complished in your last term that you want to see come up? A lot. Three of us on the City Council were new and perhaps we dragged things out because we were not as familiar with the city as the others were. One of the main things I’d like to see is an increase in the city staff. I think a lot of things move slowly be cause there are just not enough per sonnel. The town is growing so fast we just don’t have enough person nel to perform services quickly. What are your thoughts on the efficiency and future of the ward system? I am opposed to the ward system. I think the town is too small. The last time I ran I got votes (See “Hazen” page 3)