CITY REPORTER continued
"We had a lot of children transfer in here because of open enrollment," she says. "That's how we managed to keep a lot of students even though the neighborhood is being renovated."
While Booker T. Washington High School has lost more than 100 students in the last two years, between 50 and 75 students ride the city buses from their new neighborhoods to BTW every day, says principal Elsie Lewis Bailey.
Many children from LeMoyne and Foote have transferred to schools in the Frayser and Whitehaven areas, says David Sojourner, planning services administrator for the Memphis City School District. As Cummings and other schools with decreased enrollment plan to lose funding, Whitehaven schools and others with increased enrollment plan to gain.
Right now schools are operating with allocations based on last year's enrollment, says Margaret Coleman, director of physical operations. Final allocations for the 1997-98 school year are based on student enrollment figures as of October 31st. She says affected schools have planned for funding changes resulting from this year's enrollment shift.
"Schools are told to be cognizant of enrollment changes and if they expect a reduction in enrollment to plan for it," she says. "They know better than we do what their enrollment is going to be."
by Phil Campbell
The Memphis Flyer lawsuit with the city over the public disclosure of an out-of-court settlement may be decided this week.
The newsweekly is suing the city of Memphis because the city has kept confidential the details behind a settlement in which Memphis police officers were accused of negligence. According to state open-records laws, court settlements are not exempted from public inspection. As a result, the Flyer contends that the city's agreement to keep the settlement secret is unenforceable.
In early January of 1993, Adam Pollow was eating dinner at an East Memphis restaurant when he began choking. The police were called because the manager thought Pollow was on drugs, according to the suit. Pollow was put in a restrictive police constraint called a hog-tie, which is so dangerous that police director Walter Winfrey banned the practice in 1994.
Pollow, left in the back of the police squad car, choked on his own vomit. The lawsuit claims that the officers initially ignored his pleas for help, but eventually took him to the hospital. Pollow died three days later.
The Pollow family took the city to federal court for the violation of Adam Pollow's civil rights. David Pollow, Adam's father, says he settled the case in September at the judge's urging. "[Judge Julia] Gibbons said this case should be settled," he says. Pollow was unwilling to reveal the details of the settlement, however, for fear of breaching his agreement with the city.
Shortly after the Flyer filed its petition in state chancery court last week, city attorneys requested the case be moved to U.S. District Court, where it will be heard by Judge Gibbons.
A major point of confusion over this case has stemmed from the type of confidentiality agreement the city struck with the Pollow family. The city has insisted that it made its secret settlement with the approval and oversight of Gibbons, but has yet to provide any proof. At one point, the city claimed that this agreement was made on October 21st, but nothing in the case records indicates that.
Gibbons held a conference call with Flyer attorney Russell Headrick and Assistant City Attorney Sara Hall on Monday. The federal judge confirmed that she oversaw the settlement.
Gibbons will hold a hearing this Wednesday to discuss the issue and possibly end the dispute.
by Jacqueline Marino
The Memphis Publishing Company has reached a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board regarding several unfair labor charges that have been pending against it for five months.
The settlement was reached one week before the company, which publishes The Commercial Appeal,was scheduled to appear before a NLRB judge.
"Both the union and the employer worked out a compromise that was agreeable to both sides," says NLRB regional attorney Ron Hooks.
In the settlement, the Memphis Publishing Company agrees to fully cooperate with the guild in the collective bargaining process, to not discriminate against guild members, and not to remove guild-related materials from bulletin boards.
The company must post an official notice outlining the terms of the agreement on a company bulletin board for 60 days.
In June, the regional NLRB filed a complaint against the company based on charges brought by the guild. The NLRB found merit with charges that the company discriminated against guild officers, discouraged employees from engaging in guild activities, removed guild materials from bulletin boards, negotiated wages, hours, and other conditions of employment with employees without involving the guild, and failed to supply grievance information to the guild.
The Memphis Publishing Company has denied the charges. The settlement is not an admission by the company that it violated the National Labor Relations Act.
Guild vice president Dan McQuade says he does not know if the settlement will affect current contract negotiations between the guild and the company. Employees at the CA have not had a contract for two years.
The 250-member Memphis Newspaper Guild, Local 91, represents 450 employees in editorial, inside circulation, business office, general mechanics, advertising, maintenance, and transportation at the CA.
by Debbie Gilbert
Back in the Fifties, some folks thought that adding fluoride to the municipal water supply was an idea generated by Communists. Hardly anybody believes that anymore, but there are still plenty of people who think fluoride is a bad idea and some of them are scientists.
Last summer, the National Federation of Federal Employees, Local 2050, the union of workers who assess scientific data for the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C., voted unanimously to co-sponsor California's proposed Safe Drinking Water Initiative, which would ban fluoridation in that state. The NFFE based its conclusions on studies indicating "a causal link between fluoride/fluoridation and cancer, genetic damage, neurological impairment, and bone pathology. Of particular concern are recent epidemiology studies linking fluoride exposure to lowered IQ in children."
San Diego-based Citizens For Safe Drinking Water circulated petitions to collect at least 600,000 signatures in order to get the initiative on a June 1998 statewide ballot. The effort fell short by the October 20th deadline, but they're now aiming for the November 1998 election. The goal is to reverse an unfunded mandate, passed in 1995, requiring all communities in the state to be fluoridated.
"Eighty percent of California is still fluoride-free," says Jeff Green, Citizens For Safe Drinking Water spokesman. "[In the past], about three-fourths of local votes have rejected fluoridation."
What are the Californians afraid of? The initiative reads that the public health must be protected from "increased risk of hip fracture, cancer, dental fluorosis [mottling of tooth enamel], and other harmful effects which have been linked to fluoride in the scientific literature." A National Toxicology Program study citing fluoride as a "probable human carcinogen" was allegedly covered up by the government, and when Dr. William Marcus, senior science advisor in EPA's Office of Drinking Water, blew the whistle on this in 1990, he was fired (though he successfully sued EPA and got his job back).
If fluoride is indeed as dangerous as some claim, why is it allowed, even encouraged, in our drinking water? Green thinks the government is bowing to pressure from the American Dental Association and the chemicals industry.
That's poppycock, according to James Webb, manager of the water-quality assurance laboratory at Memphis Light, Gas and Water. "Fluoride is cheap there's not much money to be made in it, so I doubt any industry is getting rich off it."
Fluoride was added to the Memphis water supply in February 1970, after local health officials persuaded the city council to pass an ordinance. A referendum was held about a year later, and citizens voted to continue fluoridation. There is no state mandate, but Tennessee's health department encourages the use of fluoride. "It's recommended that you don't go higher than 2 parts per million," says Webb. "At that level, it does cause dental fluorosis. In Memphis, we keep it around 1 part per million."
What about cancer and other dire consequences? Webb cites a 1991 study released by the Department of Health and Human Services which weighed the benefits and risks of fluoride use. At optimal levels of 1 ppm (taking into account that people are exposed to additional fluoride from toothpaste and other products), the study found no negative effects.
So whom do you believe the EPA scientists' union, or the federal government? In MLGW's case, it appears to be the latter. But Webb says his agency is not pro-fluoride: "We don't endorse it. We take a neutral stand at MLGW. But if we found any indication of adverse health effects, we would go to the city council and ask to have it taken out."
by Phil Campbell
U.S. Rep. John Tanner (D-Millington) was recently given the dubious honor of being dubbed "Mr. Corporate Welfare," an award given out annually by the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center.
Tanner received $28,883 in campaign contributions from weapons makers. He had voted against all amendments to cut the current defense-spending bill and supported the final version to give the Pentagon $2.6 billion more than it requested, according to the center.
The congressman wasn't on hand to receive a trophy topped with a pig, honoring his support of defense-industry pork. A representative from the center gave it to one of Tanner's staff members.
Jeff Fleming, Tanner's press secretary, says that, beyond a half-dozen letters, the "award" from the center had sparked no widespread interest.
"This is America. Any group out there has a right to their own opinion. We basically have to agree to disagree about this," Fleming says. "That's about that."
by Tanuja Surpuriya
Memphis City Schools is trying to drum up support for a new bill that could change the way the county funds city schools and, if implemented, increase funding by up to $2 million.
The bill essentially gives the Shelby County Commission the option to fund MCS using the same formula as the state, which calculates funding based on the average daily enrollment rather than the average daily attendance. This obviously works in favor of the city school system because of its high absentee rate. According to the district report cards issued by the state Department of Education last week, the attendance rate for MCS grades 7-12 was 86.7 percent, compared to 92.7 percent for the county and 92 percent for the state.
Percy Harvey, MCS lobbyist, argues that the school system ought to be funded based on enrollment because its costs are based upon enrollment.
"We still have to pay our teachers the same, pay for electricity, and buy supplies whether or not all the students are in class," he says.
While the bill is not specifically targeted to Memphis, Harvey says it is only applicable here.
"You don't see situations like this in Knoxville or Chattanooga or Nashville," he says, "because they have consolidated governments and they fund based on membership, not attendance."
While state senator Roscoe Dixon got the bill passed in the Senate this summer, Harvey says he understands he faces a challenge getting it through the House, where it will be considered when the next session begins in January. "We understand it will be very difficult," he says. "But all we are asking is that we have the most equitable thing. Everybody pays county taxes, so we should pay on a per-pupil basis so that no one gets discriminated against."
Some state representatives, however, have expressed concern over the bill, saying that while it might raise more money for city schools, it does not solve the underlying problem of low attendance.