■r» Frances 8choen-Ne»apap«r Roos
U n ir e r .lt y o f Oregon L ib ra ry
tilgen«, Oregon 97403
Superintendent
Careers
in medicine
Halloween
Page 9
Page 2
selection
Front page
PORTLAND OBSERVER
October 29, 1981
Volume XII, Number 3
250 Per Copy
Prophet, Scamman choices
The Portland School Board has
selected three finalists from the six
men who came to Portland to seek
appointment as Superintendent -
Matthew Prophet, James Scamman
and James Fenwick. Board members
will travel to Lansing, Michigan and
South Bend, Indiana to talk with
board members, staff, community
leaders, parents and students to
determine the reputation o f the
candidates in their own cities.
Dr. Matthew Prophet was the
“ overwhelm ing choice” , the
“ outstanding ca n d id a te " o f the
Superintendent Search Citizen
Advisory Committee, according to
co-chairman Freddve Pellet. The
committee, which was advisory in
nature,
was
made
up
of
representatives o f various ethnic
com m unities, school advisory
groups, com m unity groups and
students. Charles Davis, who
represented the C ity Club, made a
separate report, also naming
Prophet as the first choice.
The Superintendent Search
Internal Advisory Committee, made
up o f teachers, administrators and
other staff categories, also selected
Prophet as their candidate.
Dr. Prophet, who is B' ck, was
born in O kolona, Missis ppi and
entered the A rm y as a private in
1951. During his terme in the service
he was in personnel and instruction.
In his last assignment, with the Fifth
Arm y Headquarters, he was
responsible for the training activities
o f approximately 100,000 men.
After leaving the service Prophet
earned his M A in Educational
Supervision and A d m in is tra tio n
from Roosevelt University and his
PhD. in Educational Supervision
and
A d m in is tra tio n
from
Northwestern University.
From 1972 to 1978 he was Deputy
Superintendent in Lansing, with
re sponsibility fo r day-to-day
operations. Since 1978 he has been
Superintendent o f the 27,500
student district.
Dr. Scamman is superintendent
o f the South Bend, Indiana school
d istrict -- a d is tric t currently
involved in court ordered desegre
gation. He went to South Bend in
1979
from
Stevens
P oint,
W isconsin,
where
he
was
superintendent.
Previous experience includes
planning and research for Kenosha,
Wisconsin schools; research fo r
RCA
In stru ctio n a l
Systems;
coordinator for Midwestern States
Educational Inform ation Pro ect.
He was originally a high school and
college music teacher.
Scamman received his Master o f
Music degree from Northwestern in
I960 and his doctorate in
Education Administration in 1965.
D r. Fenwick is a native o f
P ortland and has been w ith the
Portland Public Schools since 1953.
Among the positions he has held are
elementary teacher, high school
teacher, high school vice principal
and principal, area adm inistrator,
assistant
superintendent
fo r
curriculum. He is currently Interim
Superintend«.
Fenwick earned his BA at Lewis,
and Clark Colige and his doctorate
at Stanford University.
The School Board w ill meet in
executive session on November 2nd
to discuss in fo rm a tio n obtained
during their visits and plans to make
a final decision by November 9th.
North against South: Concun Conference
l ast week the leaders o f 22 m-„
dustriali/ed and developing nations
met in Cancún, Mexico to discuss
the role o f the rich nations in help
ing the poor nations.
Music. Music. Music - Applegate Elementary School students lis
ten to music of Thera Mem ory on recent Young Audiences work
,hop
(Photo: Richard J. Brown)
BUF holds political conference
I he Black United Front will hold
a Black P o litica l Convention on
Nov. 13, 14. and 15 at Jefferson
High School, to develop a Black
political agenda that w ill speak to
the needs o f the community.
Among the workshops are: edu
cation. family’ and community life,
health, housing, political develop
ment, law and justice, religion, sen-
ior citizens, youth and communica
tions.
A development plan will be drawn
which w ill include immediate steps
to be implemented, a two?year plan,
and a ten-year plan.
The agenda w ill provide a mea
sure against which political candi
dates and office-holders can be rat
ed and endorsements made.
I lie economic situation ol the
world is characterized by inequality
between the developed and the un
derdeveloped countries. Billions ol
human beings more than three
fourths ol the world's population
live in poverty, go hungry and are
the victims ol illness and ignorance.
Education and culture should be
one o f man’ s basic rights. Yet in the
past 15 years, the number o f illite r
ates in the world has steadily in
creased. According to UNESCO, in
1980 820 million, or approximately
three out o f every ten adults, were il
literate It is estimated that bv 1990
this tig u ic w ill reach 884 m illio n ,
and man will enter the 21 si century
with some one b illio n illite ra te
adults. Thus, in an extraordinary
period ol scientific and technical up
surge. a third of the world’ s popula
tion will be unable to read.
In hall the nations o f the earth 50
pci cent ol ilie children never com
plete gi ade school. In 1980 there
were 250 million children between 5
and 14 who did not gel any educa
tion.
t he richest fifth o f the w orld's
nations (21 per cent o f the w orld’ s
population) spend 50 tunes more on
education than the poorest fifth (26
countries w ith 23 per cent o f the
population).
Health also reflects the vast d if
ferences between the developed and
the underdeveloped world. Accord
Speaking o f Schools
F o llo w in g are exerpts fro m the
remarks o f Dr. Richard Hunter to
the Superintendent Search Citizen
Advisory Committee.
DR RICHARD HUNTER
Photo Richard J Brown
ing to the W orld Health Organiza
tion over one billion people—25 per*
cent o f the world's population -live
in conditions o f poverty, over
crowding and danger. Seventy per
cent o f the children in underdevel
oped nations suffer from infectious
and parasitic disease.
Infant mortality in developed na
tions varies between 20 and 15 chil
dren per 1,000 live births. In Africa
it is 150-200 per 1,000 live births; in
Asia it ranges between 100-150. In
I at in America it is between 30-170
(except in Cuba). This means that o f
the 122 m illio n children born in
Third W orld countries every year,
10 per cent will die before one year
and another 4 per cent before five
years. Thus, 18 million children un
der five die each year, 95 per cent o f
them in the underdeveloped coun
tries. The death rate for juveniles is
I in 40 in developed countries,
w hile in some couhfrTes one-fr?lf
die.
In developed countries life expec
tancy is 72-74 years; in underdevel
oped countries the average is 50 and
in some nations as low as 40.
The food situation in the Third
W'orld is serious. The average in
habitant o f the Third World gets j j
per cent fewer calories than an in
habitant o f a developed country.
Nearly 450 million people in the un
derdeveloped world suffer from se
rious malnutrition—that is. they are
hungry. Several hundred m illio n
more are undernourished At pres
ent, hunger is the most distressing
problem in the underdeveloped
world.
During the next 20 years vast re
gions o f the underdeveloped world
(Please turn to page lOcol. />
F o llo w in g are exerpts fro m the
remarks o f Dr. Glenn Houde to the
Superintendent Search Citizens
Advisory Committee.
Integrity, accountability, ethics:
Superintendent accountability:
The superintendent does work for
The Superintendent o f the Portland
the School Board directly and the
Public Schools needs to have a clear
School Board is the body to hold the
set o f charges in w ritin g from the
superintendent accountable. I do
Board o f Education, for which the
think that the superintendent has to
board
would
hold
the
work with other important groups,
superintendent accountable. It is the
and I would like to think that if I
responsibility o f the Board to
were to be held accountable morally
determine direction both long and
to any group it would be to the stu
short term. The board should
dents, because it ’ s for them that I
determine approximate objectives
am hoping to try to w ork. . . .
fo r the accomplishment by the
Accountability is a judgment in a
D istrict and therefore by the
situation in terms o f how people feel
superintendent.
the superintendent is perform ing
Racial fairness: We need not take
I think I'm probably very hard
the posture that racism is not being
on myself and probably hold myself
acted out somewhere in every school
accountable lor my performance. I
in Portland or any other school. We
probably have a higher standard for
need to admit that racism does
performance for myself than most
occure and that the outcomes are
people tend to have for me.
dreadful. We need to work at
Racial fairness: C ertainly I be
elim inating racism and prejudice
lieve in racial fairness; I believe in
based on race. There are also other
fairness. I think that policies should
prejudices that efrfcct us and not
be administered equally to the vari
just race and they should be
ous groups that make up the school
eliminated also.
system and I think that with regard
The policies, the regulations and
to policies lor racial fairness I think
the rules that govern the conduct o f
there are some compensating factors
the employees in the school district
that obviously need to be taken care
should clearly forbid decisions being
o f in public education
w ith re
made on the basis o f race, sex or
gard to making some modifications
age.
Student Achievement:
Even with the policies, rules and
I he things that need to be done in
regulations m place racism will still
(Please turn to page 6 column /)
(Please turn to page ft columng I)
DR GLENN HOUDE
Photo Richard J Brown