St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 10

APR I 19BU. MONDAY, APRIL 28, 1980 ST. LOUIS POST' DISPATCH SECTION I-12C Editorials News analysis Page 2 Page 3 classified pages 4-11 Black Ministers; Urge Change In Schools Plan Market Street and Tucker Boulevard. The demonstrations are scheduled to begin at 8 a.m., at the board office and 9 a.m., at the courthouse to coincide with the presentation of the final desegregation plan to Senior U.S. District Court Judge James H.

Meredith. The plan is supposed to be delivered to Meredith no later than Friday. The purpose of the demonstrations is to show Meredith that the plan at least as outlined so far by School Superintendent Robert E. Wentx is unacceptable, Collins, pastor of Antioch Baptist Church, said. "We need to demand equal treatment and quality education for our children," said Collins, speaking to about 100 persons attending the rally.

"And right now, we dont think that Is what being offered." Collins was spokesman for the Greater St. Louis Baptist Ministers Alliance which has about 130 members. In a letter sent Friday to School Board President Gordon L. Benson, Collins complained that a tentative part of the plan that calls for schools to be "clustered" in groups primarily to accommodate a new grade configuration for "middle schools" Includes integration In less than half of those clusters. "Of the 23 proposed educational clusters, we understand only 10 of them will be integrated," the letter says.

"The majority of these clusters are located in south St. Louis," leaving many black youngsters in north St. Louis still attending all-black schools. As an alternative, Collins said the By Linda Lockhart OfthePoet-Otpstdi SUfT North St. Louis ministers who say a proposed desegregation plan fails to treat black students, fairly are seeking changes In the including bringing more South Side whites further into the North Side, and are calling on the black community to speak out in an attempt to effect some changes.

At a rally Sunday at the Washington Tabernacle Baptist Church, 3200 Washington Boulevard, the Rev. William Collins said one step to mobilize the black community would be through a protest demonstration of ministers and other supporters Friday morning in front of the Board of Education Building, 911 Locust Street, and at the Federal Courts Building, put in north St. Louis." Collins also said there is a problem of many north St. Louis schools losing top black teachers and administrators to South Side schools, and receiving less qualified white teachers and administrators in return. "We demand that schools in north St.

Louis not be deprived of its better black teachers and administrators and replaced by incompetent andor unwanted white teachers and administrators," Collins said in the letter. If changes are not made in the plan to the satisfaction of North Side parents, Collins said the group of ministers may consider calling a "student strike," where parents would be asked to keep their children out of school for a day to demonstrate their board should place as many integrated clusters on the North Side as on the South Side. Those clusters should be "dispersed as far north as you disperse those in south St. Louis," he said. "The so-called central corridor should not and must not be the only area considered.

Let us have two or three integrated clusters north of Highway 70," he said. Collins said that residents of north St. Louis were also opposed to plans for placing special "enrichment" programs only in those North Side schools that remain untouched by desegregation. "If the programs are so good, why don't they put them in some of the white schools, too?" he asked. "Put as many of them in south St, Louis as you would strong feelings on the matter.

"The school district is paid by the state a certain amount for each pupil for each day they attend schools," Collins said. "If we pulled our black children out of the schools they wouldn't have any schools because they wouldn't have any money." If neccesary, Collins said, students could be kept out of school indefinitely, with interim schools being set up in churches to help students keep up with their studies during the protest action. Even if Meredith approves the desegregation proposal, Collins said he believes keeping students out of school could bring about a change. "We believe it is possible because it is important for the future of our children," he said. "We will do what we have to." Developer To Buy Lafayette Towne f-f7 N) 5 'mk ap" ri iii mu't ihr li --pi ft I i immi iti in i i i iiinamfrjriiimm By Chartona Proat Of the Post-Otopatch Staff The 222-acre Lafayette Towne redevelopment project in south St.

Louis is being sold by the Home Builders Association to the Pantheon officials of both firms confirmed Sunday. Sandy Rothschild, the association's staff vice president, and Leon Strauss, president of Pantheon, said, however, that the sales transaction had not yet been completed. Strauss said financing for the sale was not yet arranged. He said be did not want to discuss details until the sale had been completed. But Strauss said he was proceeding with the negotiations despite spiraling construction costs and the high cost of money that have been restricting many other developers.

"We think times are going to get better," he said. Rothschild said that the prospect of selling the project to Pantheon was creating some "mixed emotions" on the part of the association. "On the one hand, we wish we had accomplished more," he said. "But on the other hand, we wanted to encourage developers to come in." The sale to Pantheon, a major developer in the city, would be in keeping with the association's goals, be said. While the project has resulted thus far in construction of nearly 290 new housing units and the rehabilitation of about 30 residential units In the area, Rothschild said the association had hoped originally to stimulate even more activity.

"And secondly," be said, "we had hoped when the project started that we would be able to encourage more suburban builders back to the city. We did encourage Freeman (H.W. Freeman Construction), but we were hopeful of encouraging more." Lafayette Towne is one of the city's older neighborhoods, with some houses dating from the late 1800s. Historic Lafayette Square is to the east; St. Louis university's Midtown Medical Center Redevelopment Corp.

is revitalizing a 274-acre area on the west Lafayette Towne is bounded generally by Jefferson Avenue, Interstate 44, Compton Avenue and LaSalle Street. The first new construction in Lafayette Towne, started in 1977, produced 64 units of subsidized housing for large families and 100 residential units for the elderly. Then the Lleberman Corp. built more than 60 subsidized housing units, and in July, Freeman opened the first of IS new single-family houses. Rothschild said all the new houses have been sold, "which indicates there to a market for that type of bousing." Pantheon, which has several development projects under way including a massive one in the West End, also has been at work In Lafayette Towne.

Pantheon broke ground in July for the first phase of a large condominium and rental apartment development. About 20 units of condominiums are completed or nearlng completion. Pantheon next plans to build more than 100 units of rental apartments. Rothschild said the sale would involve essentially a "transfer" of much of the land and development rights to Pantheon. Pantheon would be buying land that the association owns and had planned to sell to other developers including land that already has options held by other developers, Rothschild said.

He said he was not certain of the acreage involved, i and be did not want to discuss the price. Rothschild said be assumed that Pantheon would receive development privileges approved by the Board of Aldermen for the association's subsidiary the Lafayette Towne Redevelopment Corp. But Rothchild said Sunday that he was not certain whether those privileges 25-year tax abatement and power of eminent domain would be automatically transferred to Pantheon through the sale, or whether the Board of Aldermen would have to approve first. J.B. ForbesPost-Dispatch Surrounded Robby Long looks a little uneasy among what between German and Allied forces.

World War II appear to be German soldiers Saturday at weapons and a USO dance were part of the Jefferson Barracks County Park. The men are weekend events. The "soldiers" are. from left: actually members of the World War II Historical Marty Cliffe Bob Long, the father of 1 -year-Re-enactment Society, which staged a skirmish old Robby, and Marty Cliffe Sr. Officials Expsi Phillips clinic treats an average of 300 patients a day.

Forty-two of the 358 doctors on the city payroll voted Friday to stay away from work because they have not been paid for six weeks, the result of a dispute with City Comptroller Raymond T. Percich. Most of the 42 doctors work at Phillips. The clinics are closed on weekends, and no problems were reported over the weekend at the By Victor Volland Of the Poet-Dispatch Stiff Operations at the Homer G. Phillips clinic went fairly smoothly this morning despite the walkout of many of the physicians who normally staff the city-run facility.

But city officials said a crunch could develop later today when patients show up for appointments at the clinic at 2601 Whittier Street and two satellite clinics Wohl, at 1528 North Kingshighway, and Courtney, at 1717 Biddle Street. The Phillips emergency room. Dr. R. Dean Wochner, director of the city's Health and Hospitals Division, said today that emergency room operations were "fairly normal." The emergency room remained open around-the-clock, staffed by volunteer part-time doctors on the city payroll.

Enough volunteers were recruited also for the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shifts on Saturday and Sunday, Wochner said, when a pinch had been" expected. All patients who came to the emergency room were seen by a physician, and ambulance runs proceeded smoothly, officials said. A check at the clinics this morning showed that operations were not unduly strained, although many of the patients had appointments with the 42 full-time physicians involved in the walkout.

Wochner said the clinic patients were being screened by nurse-practitioners and other personnel to determine whether their conditions were stable. If they were not, the patients were referred to the emergency room. He repeated his call for walk-in patients to the emergency room to report instead to City Hospital if they can because the Phillips emergency room would be too busy to see them. Wochner said the dispute over paying the 42 physicians would have to be resolved by an election to change the City Charter's $25,000 salary ceiling for city employees, including physicians. Percich has withheld the doctors' pay on the ground that they have been receiving the maximum $25,000 full- time salary even though they work only 20 to 25 hours a week at the city hospitals.

Mayor Jim Conway is meeting with members of the Board of Aldermen today to discuss a charter amendment, which could not be put before the voters before Aug. 5, and to determine some sort of interim relief. Wochner said one possibility was an amendment to the city's pay ordinance that would eliminate reference to 40-hour work weeks for physicians only. "We can't continue operating like this for long," Wochner said. Student Letter Arouses Chinese Professor's Ire i Bi-State Adopting Plan To Reduce Absenteeism Anti-Drug Group To Picket Tonight's Concert By 'Wlio' By Phil Sutin Of the Post-Ditpatch Staff Bi-State will put into effect Thursday a new policy designed to curb absenteeism among the bus system's employees.

If successful, the new policy could save about $2 million a year, says transit manager William J. Wilson. Currently, absenteeism among bus drivers runs about 10 percent, he said; among mechanics, the rate is 6 percent. The $2 million in savings would be achieved if absenteeism is reduced to 3 percent, Wilson said. Employees got a copy of the policy Friday with their paychecks.

Wilson explained it to Bi-State commissioners at their meeting Friday morning. The new policy allows an employee four incidents of absenteeism or tardiness in six months. If the worker accrues four more incidents in the next six months, he is fired. But first, he will get counseling, a series of warnings and be the subject of meetings between labor and management representatives. An employee can appeal a dismissal to Wilson, who has authority to waive the policy.

Wilson said he met twice with representatives of Locals 788 and 1304 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents most Bi-State employees, before implementing the policy. He said he also held training sessions about the policy with supervisors, including foremen. He said that although the policy is stricter than past Bi-State regulations, it is more relaxed than policies in Industry and other transit systems. In other action Friday, the commissioners appointed James S. 1 Nations, an Illinois commissioner from Fairview Heights, as chairman for the year beginning Julyl.

Dempster Holland, a Missouri commissioner from Webster Groves, was named vice chairman; Carl Mathias, an Illinois commissioner from Granite City, secretary; and Francis Guelker, a Missouri commissioner from St. treasurer. Gerald Rimmel, the current chairman, has left the commission because his term expired. Michael Aubuchon, a Missouri commissioner from Sappington, joined the commission Friday as Rimmel's successor. Nations will be acting chairman until July 1.

By Roger Slgnor Of the Post-Dispatch Staff A dispute in the letters-to-the-editor section of a Washington University student newspaper has prompted a professor there to'charge that he is' the victim "of a form of McCarthyism." Richard H. Yang, a professor of Chinese at the university since 1963, says the newspaper, Student Life, published a letter by an anonymous writer who charged that Yang and other unspecified persons lead a "repressive foreign political party" on the campus for the government of Taiwan. The letter was published Tuesday and was signed with a pseudonym, "Deng Peh Him." Yang said in an interview Friday, "I am an American citizen I don't pay dues to any foreign party." He said he became an American citizen In 1965 and has held various posts at universities in this country since 1960. "I am not a member of that government," he said. He called the anonymous charges "despicable and beneath contempt" and said: "My views are widely known, and I debate them openly." He said his support for the Republic of China has been widely known for years.

In the late 1940s, he said, he belonged to a youth agency In that government, which he noted was a matter of record In his academic resume. "But that is not the issue here," he said. The publication of charges by an anonymous accuser "shows that the ghost of McCarthyism still walks," he said. Student Life editor April Nauman admitted that the letter was signed with a pseudonym. She said that it was in accord with newspaper policy because she knew the identity of the author.

Ms. Nauman said the letter-writer had asked to remain anonymous because of fear of reprisals directed at him or at his family in Taiwan. But in the Friday edition of Student Life, Ms. Nauman wrote that Student Life "regrets personal harm caused Dr. Yang by the insinuation, unsubstantiated, in that letter." She added In her printed apology that she was aware of about 12 Taiwanese students also anonymous who "are terrified of expressing dissenting political views." Student Life also published a letter by Yang on Friday in which he said, "I deplore that such a libelous letter be published without care.

The legal accountability must rest with the mysterious 'Deng' and his mentors." And 50 Taiwanese students at Washington University signed yet another letter in Friday's Student Life, stating that they did not feel repressed by their government. They said that they "are the vast majority of students from Taiwan" on the campus. They also criticized the letter attacking Yaf A group of conservative activists who say they are seeking a ban on all smoking at the Checkerdome as a means of restricting marijuana use plans to picket the concert there tonight by the Who, the British rock group. Eleven persons were trampled to death in a rush for seats at a Who concert in Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum Dec. 3.

A ban on smoking took effect at the Cincinnati coliseum last week. But Charles G. Mancuso, Checkerdome manager, said he had taken all necessary precautions and was expecting no trouble at the concert, which is sold out. Mancuso said that seating for the concert was entirely by reservation and that every entrance to the Checkerdome would be used. "The stigma of concerts comes from Cincinnati and was caused directly by general admission seating," Mancuso said.

Authorities in Cincinnati were criticized for using only one entrance so that all persons with general admission tickets were attempting to get in through the same door. In a statement calling for pickets, protest organizer John O. Shields said, "It is completely irresponsible to our community on the part of Ralston Purina to bring this infamous group to St. Louis." Ralston Purina Co. owns the Checkerdome but leases it to another company, Dome Associates.

George Kyd, director-of public relations for Ralston, said Sunday that the company has nothing to do with the operation of the Checkerdome and had no statement concerning the concert. Security personnel" at the concert will include 30 to 35 off-dujy St. Louis policemen, 75 "T-shirt patrol" security guards and 150 to 170 ushers, Mancuso said. Shields, who has formed a group called the National Coalition of Parents Against Drugs at Rock -Concerts, said Ralston Purina officers still were considering requests for a smoking ban at the Checkerdome. But Kyd said the company had nothing to say about that either.

Shields is a Ladue businessman who in 1971 sought to keep radical lawyer William Kunstler from speaking at St. Louis University..