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THE VOICE OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY
THE WEEK OF MARCH 13,1997
VOLUME 22 NO. 26
75 CENTS
ALSO SERVING CABARRUS, CHESTER, ROWAN AND YORK COUNTIES
Spending would prioritize schools’ overhaul
By John Minter
THE CHABLOTTB POST
Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Schools Supt. Eric Smith wants
to fund a major shift in priori
ties and practice with an addi
tional $18.5 million in local
spending for the 93,000-student
system next year.
“This system does not need
touch-up and polish,” Smith
said in his 1997-98 budget intro
duction. “What it requires is a
major reformation to promote,
solid, academic achievement.”
The 13.2 percent increase in
funding includes $7.6 million to
open two new schools, a 2,600-
student enrollment increase,
Simms
headed
to L.A.
By John Minter
THE CHAELOTTE POST
Bill Simms, one of Charlotte’s
high profile business leaders, is
headed back to Los Angeles to
accept a major promotion.
Simms, president of
TransAmerica Life’s Risk
Management Products and
Services Group, has been
named to head the newly-creat
ed Insurance Products Division.
He will oversee sales and mar
keting of TransAmerica Life
insurance products in the
United States and Asia.
He will man
age 1,200
employees -
up from 350 in
Charlotte -
and supervise
mandatory pay increases and
inflation. Another $2.3 million
would be redirected into new
areas.
But $10.9 million in new fimd-
ing would used for eight major
initiatives to meet Smith’s
Framework for Academic
Success.
The superintendent has set
several specific goals by the year
2001, including reducing the
racial, socioeconomic .and gen
der disparities in achievement
to no more than 10 percent. For
example, white students
achievement benchmarks are
about twice those of African
American students.
Other goals including raising
Scholastic Achievement Test
scores 23 points to the national
average of
1,013, increas
ing the per
centage of
third-graders
reading at
grade level to
85 percent, up
from 61 per
cent and
increasing the
number of
students taking
advanced placement and
International Baccalaureate
courses from 27 percent to 33
percent.
The school system’s budget
Smith
would total $516 million, up
from $478 million this year.
Most of the money would be
funded by state and federal gov
ernments, $332.4 million and
$19 million, respectively. Local
spending would total $158.5
miUion, up finm $140 million.
The added spending is critical.
Smith said.
“Charlotte-Mecklenburg has a
long distance to go in increasing
achievement levels,” he said.
“This system is in trouble when
it comes to achievement levels.”
Hilton L’Orange, the system’s
assistant superintendent and
financial officer, pointed out
that per-pupil spending in the
SeeBUDGET on page 2A
Where an additional
I $18.5 million would go:
' 2 new schools, mandatory pay
raises and inflation ($7.6M)
SOURCE/CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG SCHOOLS
GRAPHIC/W. MICHAEL HARRIS
new product
and market
development.
“I am
extremely
pleased to , Simms
have a chance
to have an additional impact on
my company,” Simms said
Wednesday. “It is going to be
challenging, but it’s what you
strive for in your career.”
Simms admitted he and his
wife, Johanna, and 10-month-
old daughter, Julianna, will
miss Charlotte.
“My wife and I are extremely
sad,” Simms said. “We love this
city. We have tremendous
friends here. We are going to
miss it. It is a different
lifestyle...a family-oriented envi-
romnent.”
Simms said he will be return
See SIMMS on page 6A
A second chance
Revitalizing Cummings Ave.
PHOTO/CALVIN FERGUSON
Phyllis Martin (far right) has a second chance at building a productive iife in the Cummings Avenue area, which is undergoing a
revitaiization effort by attracting carefuliy-screened residents. With Martin are Fighting Back Ciuster One coordinator Donnie Martin
and Tonja Adams of the Meckienburg Structured Day probation program.
Structured Day probation pro
gram think they have hit on a
way to revitalize a community
and lives.
Moore said he is sure that
Martin and others like her
can, with the proper assis
tance and support, be valuable
and contributing members of a
revitalized Cummings Avenue
area.
“People with substance
abuse problems don’t want to
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Phyllis Martin feels like
she’s got a second chance
these days.
Martin and her 13-year-old
son have just moved into her
new apartment and she is
working regularly. She has
also completed a major step in
her court-ordered probation on
a drug sales conviction.
“I was really at the point of a
nervous breakdown,” said the
Lumberton, N.C., native who
moved to Charlotte 10 years
go. “I didn’t know where to go.
I did not have a job. Once you
go through the court system,
nobody wants to take a chance
on you.”
Donnie Moore, Fighting
Back’s Cluster One coordina
tor, took a chance on Martin.
He thinks she’s just the kind
of person who can help revital
ize the Cummings Avenue
area, one of the city’s most
troubled.
Moore and Tonja Adams of
the Mecklenburg County
See NEIGHBORon page 2A
Woodard
to chair
board
First black woman
to head city’s civil
service panel
By John Minter
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Valerie Woodard, a Public
Defender’s office investigator,
has been elected chair of the
Civil Service Board, which
reviews disciplinary actions
within the police and fire depart
ments.
Woodard, a second vice presi
dent of the
N.C. NAACP,
is the first
African
American
woman to
head the
board. Former
Charlotte
police officer
Rudy
Torrence was
the first African
American to chair the board.
Election of a new chair was
necessary following the removal
of former chair William
Kennedy after city officials
learned he no longer lived in
Mecklenburg County.
Woodard noted the changes in
the board, which now includes
three minorities.
University Park Baptist
Church pastor Claude
Alexander is also on the board
See WOODARD on page 7A
Woodard
Housekeeper doesn’t think twice about good deed
PHOTO/CALVIN FERGUSON
Tania Myers found and returned a wallet containing $1,300 last
wreek at the Arena Inn on Independence Boulevard. Her act of hon
esty resulted in a $300 reward and a party in her honor Saturday.
By Kaia Zawadi
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Honesty is still the best policy,
and Tania Myers has been
rewarded for it.
Myers, a housekeeper at the
Arena Inn on Independence
Boulevard, was doing her daily
routine of cleaning rooms. When
she stripped a bed to change the
sheets, a wallet landed at the
foot of the bed.
“Oh my God,” she said. Myers
looked inside and found that
there was an awfully large
amount of dollar bills.
“I immediately took the wallet
down to the finnt desk and gave
it to the person working,” she
sai3. We sat down and counted
it.” A total of $1,300 was count
ed and the wallet was safely
locked away for the owner, Jim
MacCallum of Charlotte, to
daim.
Myers will be honored at a pri
vate party at the Tropical Room
on Saturday. “We will present
her with a plaque,” MacCallum
said. “I don’t think she coxild be
rewarded enou^.”
MacCallum, owner of
Charlotte Sash and Door and
Golden Window, was returning
from an out-of-town trip when
he stopped by the hotel to take a
shower before a home-improve
ment exhibit at the
Merchandise Mart.
“I noticed that my wallet was
missing after I parked my car to
attend the show,” MacCallum
said.
MacCallum reported the wal
let missing to the front desk. At
that time, no one knew of its
whereabouts. When Myers
returned it, MacCallum was
contacted by manager Tom
Kalyn to pick it up. “It must
have fallen out when I changed
my dothes,” MacCallum said. “I
thought ‘oh well, it’s gone.’”
The thought of keeping $1,300
is very tempting for most peo
ple, but Myers felt differently.
“I knew that there was a lot of
money when I found it,” she
said. “That’s why I didn’t count
it then. I didn’t know what pur
pose that money was to be used
for, but it must have been
important. Jim planned to
deposit the money in the bairk
that afternoon. I would not have
been able to live with myself if I
See GOOD on page 6A
Inside
Editorials 4A-5A
Strictly Business 8A
A&E 10A
Sports ISA
Lifestyles 1B
Religion 6B
Regional News 9B
Classified 11B
Auto Showcase 12B
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© 1996 The Charlotte Post
Publishing Company.
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charpost@clt.mindspring.com
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