Colman Genn, the superintendent of Community School Board 27 in southeastern Queens, N.Y., who last year blew the whistle on patronage in his district, has announced his resignation effective Jan. 2.
Conversations taped secretly by Mr. Genn revealed that community school-board members in his district were pressuring him to hire friends and political allies for positions the superintendent termed “unnecessary.” (See Education Week, Nov. 1, 1989.)
His testimony before a commission investigating fraud and corruption in the New York City school system led to the suspension of his board and the dismissal of more than 50 employees.
Mr. Genn said that exhaustion and stress were leading him to prematurely end his 36-year career in the city’s schools.
A Texas high-school sophomore has joined the U.S. Navy, at least temporarily, for a cruise to Antarctica.
Sixteen-year-old Bryan Sartain, who attends Sez High School in Pilot Point, last week boarded the U.S.S. Polar in Seattle, bound for McMurdo station by way of the Fiji Islands, Australia, and Tasmania. The voyage is scheduled to last six months.
For three years, Bryan has been a member of the Dallas chapter of the Sea Cadets, a youth group sponsored by the Navy. He hopes to attend the U.S. Naval Academy after he finishes high school.
Once in Antarctica, Bryan will be observing scientists sponsored by the National Science Foundation perform research on damage to the ozone layer.
The youth took classes last summer in anticipation of the voyage, and will complete a correspondence course in world geography during the trip.
