Copyright 1988 A federal grand jury Oct. 31 indicted Malcolm George, the board’s second vice president, on two counts of bribe taking and two counts of extortion. Mr. George allegedly accepted $8,000 from two teachers to improve their chances for advancement, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Newark.
Officials declined to name the teachers or say whether they had been promoted.
Since Mr. George’s indictment, federal investigators have received a dozen or more calls and letters a day about other alleged cases of promotion peddling on the nine-member board, according to the spokesman.
Mr. George was scheduled for arraignment late last week, the spokesman said.
Two Alabama districts have responded in different ways to cocaine-smuggling charges against three teachers.
Recent federal indictments allege that Linda Christian, a 6th-grade math teacher; Renea Hubbard, a special-education teacher; and Althea Sweeting, a kindergarten teacher, participated in an international cocaine-smuggling ring.
The Birmingham school district has begun termination proceedings against Ms. Christian, according to Superintendent Cleveland Hammonds Jr. Ms. Hubbard has already resigned from the system.
The Talladega County schools, however, have put Ms. Sweeting on leave with pay, pending resolution of her criminal case.
A North Carolina school-bus driver has been accused of killing a fellow student on his bus.
Union County school officials say James Barrino, 18, a senior at Forest Hills High School in Marshville, is being held without bond for the Nov. 2 stabbing death of 16-year-old Danny Allen, a junior.
A scuffle broke out as Mr. Allen got off Mr. Barrino’s bus, according to officials. The driver allegedly stabbed the student in the abdomen. Mr. Barrino also faces assault charges for injuring a second student.
Officials said none of the students had any record of discipline problems.
Three Chicago high schools are experimenting with longer class periods.
The schools have gone from nine daily periods of 40 minutes each to seven 50-minute classes. The idea could spread to the city’s 62 other public high schools, according to Assistant Superintendent Jack Mitchell.
The experimental schedule will reduce the number of study halls, which in some schools are held three times a day.
The shift to longer instructional periods would bring Chicago’s schools into line with most other districts, said Scott D. Thomson, executive director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals.
Purdy, Mo., high-school students can have their dance, a federal appeals court has decided.
The Dec. 10 dance was made possible by the students’ challenge of a school-board policy banning dances. A federal judge in Springfield, Mo., struck down the policy as unconstitutionally promoting religion.
The board appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, which upheld the lower-court ruling.
