.MTUwNA.MTUwNA

! ;. (' 1o,, - / School Pla1111n1g DebatedPeople Battle City Planner ! .. By LEE SI1\'10W.ITZ A meeting on a report critical of the Atlanta Board of Educa ti'on this week unexepectedly . turned into an impromptu symposium on community control versus professional planning. The ·meeting was called by the education subcommittee of the Citizens Central Advisory Council, a body that pools community representatives who help make policy at anti-poverty neighhorhood centers-:- .,.. The subcommLttee had issued a list of recommendations to the school board on various aspects of the school system, and several members of supt. John 1 Letson's staff were on hand Monday ni1ght to reply. THREE HOU:"S The staff members heard a three-hour series of complaints from the subcomm~ttee on the alleged difficulty of communica ting with the board or involving neighborhood residents in the planning process. Finally, faced with a ques.t_ion about expanding Price High &hool, assistant superin~endent for buildings Dr. Darwm Wo- 1 mack said flatly: "I'm telling you as a planner · it ought to be bigger. It's the best thing. I'm a planner and l'm supposed to know." Womack immediately faced an uproar in the room at the West Hunter Baptist Church where the meeting was being held. . The Rev. Mance Jackson, director of an lniterdenominational Theologica1l Cen_ter project in the Lightning district, stood and said, "He (Womack) is not responsive to the will of a community of people." Womack, said Jackson, has no children in the affected school. " Tha t man," he added, · "has no business serving this lcind of community." I i EARLIER-CI.;ASH Womack and Jackson - who suggested sit-ins to tie up construction sites; of unwanted schools - clashed once earlier on local control. "That's the trouble with participation," Womack said. · "People think they have veto power." Even if a school is built against the wishes of some of the residents, he added, that does not prove the school board did not listen to community opinion. "A community has the right to have veto power," replied J ackson. If the community is against a school, it should not be built, he added. The school system also came under attack for being inaccess i bl e to citizen complaints. "The bureaucratic red tape not only frustrates us but dumbfounds us," said Jackson. "If we want to raise Cain about the lunchroom, who do we see?" asked one woman. "If we want to raise Cain about how the money is spent, who do we talk to?" ACCOMPLJSHED FACTS Mrs. Maggie Moody; chairman of the subcommittee, complained that the school board's public meeting only presented citizens with occomplished facts, - and that she had been unable either to address the board or to attract members to subcommittee meetings. The meeting covered only five of the subcommittee's 13 recommendations, a nd. ended when Mrs. Moody. said the list would have to be forwarded ·ctirectly to . the sc,hool board for a reply. 1 . r. • , . .._.. \ J �