Janice Herbranson, who gained celebrity status two years ago as the lowest-paid teacher in the country, may be off to teach in Alaska next year if her one-room North Dakota schoolhouse closes down for lack of students.
Two of her three students at the Salund School in McLeod are expected to graduate from 6th grade next spring, and school officials in the town, population 60, are unlikely to keep the school open, she said.
In the meantime, she’s had a teaching offer from a school district in Dillingham, Alaska, which she is seriously considering.
Although she suspects she would “get so homesick” for her three sons and five grandchildren, the 51-year-old Mrs. Herbranson says, “If I’m going to do something, now’s the time.”
The McLeod school district raised Mrs. Herbranson’s $6,300 annual pay by $500 after her salary level became national news in 1983. She would not comment on her possible salary in Alaska, except to say that it would “probably” be higher. According to information from The National Education Association/Alaska, it may be considerably higher: The average salary for the state’s 7,000 classroom teachers is $41,000 this year.
In addition to considering a move from her native state to far-flung Alaska, Mrs. Herbranson also is mulling over an offer from a Hollywood producer to make a movie of her life. If her plans work out, she said, the film’s last scene may show her hard at work somewhere west of Anchorage.
Ruth B. Love, former superintendent of the Chicago public schools, has reached a settlement in her $4.5-million lawsuit against the city’s board of education.
After board members voted not to extend her contract, which expired in March, she sued the board, charging that Mayor Harold Washington ordered school-board members loyal to him not to renew her contract because she refused to hire job applicants with political connections. She also charged that she was the victim of race and sex discrimination. (See Education Week, Aug. 22, 1984.)
The settlement, which does not include money, has been approved by U.S. District Judge James Moran, according to an assistant to Thomas Sullivan, the lawyer who handled Ms. Love’s case.
The arts should be a part of basic education, “right up there with English and math and science,” according to Frank Hodsoll, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.
In a speech to the American Council for the Arts, Mr. Hodsoll said his agency plans to broaden the guidelines for its Artists in Education program, converting it to an “Art in Education Program.”
Through these changes, endowment officials hope to support “a broad range of activities,” both through state arts programs and through direct work with schools to encourage “serious, comprehensive, arts-education programs,” Mr. Hodsoll said.
The Artists in Education program reached about 3.6 million students and 76,000 teachers nationwide in the 1983-84 school year, he said.
Jeff Saharsky, a senior at Denmark High School near Green Bay, Wis., has won the Future Farmers of America’s Achievement in Volunteerism Award for his work with the organization’s community-development program.
“He’s a workaholic--the first one there when anyone asks for volunteers,” said Kenneth G. Seering, Mr. Saharsky’s ffa advisor.
Among his many projects, Mr. Saharsky developed an outdoor classroom for use as a nature laboratory by area students.
A youth whose parents were accused last spring of “stealing” an education by crossing district lines to enroll him in a suburban Connecticut school district has been arrested on drug and assault charges andel10lsuspended from school.
Sixteen year-old Trevor Foster and another Hartford Public High School student were arrested late last month and charged with conspiracy to possess cocaine, third-degree assault, disorderly conduct, and interfering with a police officer, according to Hartford police.
Amado G. Cruz, the school principal, said he called police after a student reported that Mr. Foster and another student had assaulted him. Mr. Foster, who re-enrolled in the Hartford school in September, had twice before been expelled, Mr. Cruz said.
Saundra Foster, Trevor’s mother, was one of four parents arrested last spring and charged with first-degree larceny for enrolling their children in the suburban Bloomfield school district. The charges were dismissed after the state’s attorney refused to prosecute.
The New York City Board of Education has appointed Sylvia Schechter as citywide director of its newly created office of physical education and school sports. She thus becomes the first woman to head a sports program in a large urban school system, according to board officials.
Ms. Schechter, formerly director of health and physical education for the city schools, will administer $2.25 million in new funds targeted for a three-year expansion of the school sports program. First steps this year will include broadening the competitive sports program in the city’s 111 high schools, as well as upgrading sports equipment.
Ms. Schechter’s goals include increased emphasis on the interscholastic sports program in the lower grades, as well as development of a strong intramural, after-school sports plan. The changes are intended to help “youngsters feel good about themselves, raise their egos, and, most important, keep them in school,” she said.
Stamping out illiteracy, drug abuse, and discrimination, and building winning athletic and administrative teams are high on Ronald A. Boyd’s agenda as he takes over as superintendent of the Cleveland Public Schools.
A crowd of more than 200 people, joined by a band and a group of cheerleaders, greeted the new superintendent on Sept. 23 as he arrived at the Board of Education building for his first day on the job. Mr. Boyd came to Cleveland last month after having served as deputy superintendent of schools in Compton, Calif.
“I am out to get illiteracy, drugs, unfair treatment, the lack of reading abilities, and the lack of winning teams,” he said during an impromptu speech delivered from the steps of the administration building. “Parents, I’m going to need your support. I’m going to count on all of you.”
