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Show Al2 TheSalt Lake Tribune Superintendent: Bean Steps Down, Laing to Step In said Garff, ‘But in the endhe still would have been our first choice, “He shares our vision and has been given tough assignments we he has handled well,” Garff eine has been the associate state superintendent in charge of ontinued from A-1 budget has grown from $1.5 billion to $2.3 billion, the largest of any state agency. Bean inherited an underfunded, overcrowded public-school system — two problemsthat continue to plague Utah’s schools. Despite the lack of funding, planning and project services since 1997. Prior to that he served seven years as superintendent of the Box Elder School District. From 1976 through 1987, he was a teacher, coach and then principal at Cedar City High School, He also worked in the Iron School District offices. Laing, a Logan native, earned his doctorate in education at YU. The biggest question surround- Board Chairman Katharine B. Garff was able to list dozens of strides that Utah schools have made during Bean’s tenure, including: improvements to the an $80 million school-improve- provedteacher training, more eq- this year. The plan called for such things as lengthening the school day, adding more high-school graduation requirements and im- plied Technology Centers. “He is the greatest gift the state of Utah has had for children,” she said of Bean. Garff and the rest of the board showed as much confidence in provingteacher training. On Tuesday, Bean said he was state’s core curriculum, increasing technology in schools, im- uitable school-funding formulas and increased enrollment in Ap- Laing, selecting himtofill the post without going through an ap- plication and search process “We debated the possibility,” ing Bean's retirement announcement was what would happen to mentplan he introduced earlier not worried about the plan's future “If they are good ideas, others will certainly continue to espouse them,” he said Laing said he wants the discussions to continue. “The concept of raising aca- demic expectationsfor all stu- UTAH/WORLD workedvery hard to protect and defend the system we now havein place,” Stephensonsaid. Stephenson, whoalso is headof not had much time to contemplate his goals for Utah's educa- the Utah Taxpayers As: but said he would like to Scott Bean local schools create accountability ting aside funding for that,” Stephensonsaid. the day was mostly filled with praise for Bean amountof timestudents spend in class. In 1995, he mandated that Douglas Bates, attorneyfor the state Office of Education, has worked with Bean for 20 y “In all of my work with Scott, whentherehas been a question of whetherto take this approach or that approach, hehas always said for kids even thoughthat position might not have been politically popu: lar,”’ Bates said. * has not been afraid to take an unpopular position if he felt like children would benefit as result.” State Sen. Howard Stephenson, had kind words for Bean, although the two have often disagreed about educationissues “Twouldsay hehas beenanex THE ASSOCIATED PRESS said the United States views Xu’s BEIJING — The detention of two of China’s most influential dissidents and three other pro-democracyactivists underscores the “We havesaid for some weeks nowthat we are disturbed by the Partyas required by law but have recent number of detentions of dissidents that serve to limit political debate in China,” Rubin said. been rebuffed. Aside from Qin, police in Wuhan also hauled away two other government's stated determination to crush anychallenge to one- party Communistrule. Legislative chairman Li Peng, the CommunistParty's No. 2 offi- cial, was quoted as saying Tuesday that Western-style democracy was inappropriate for China and that opposition groups would not betolerated Police in twocities went to the homesof Xu Wenli, Qin Yongmin and other members of the fledgling China Democracy Party on Monday night and took them away, relatives and a human- detention“as a seriousstep in the “We have repeatedly communicated this view to Chinese au- thorities.” Police on Tuesday informed the family of Qin Yongmin that he had been arrested for plotting to overthrow the government, the Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said. The crime carries a maxi- rights group said Tuesday. mum penalty of life imprisonment. Police who went to Xu’s home The police action was oneof the most severe since dissidents an- and search warrants that identi- nouncedtheir attempt to form an opposition group in June to challenge the Communist Party’s mo- nopoly on power. Since then, po- lice have questioned, briefly detained and harassed the actiy- ist If organizations seek “the multiparty system and try to negate the leadership of the Communist Monday night produced arrest fied him as a criminal suspect, said his wife, He Xitong. Unlike previous occasions when Xu was held only for short periods, his wife feared this time that authorities were planning to charge and convict him. Encouraged by China’s recent signing of key U.N. human-rights treaties, dissidents in manyparts of the country have beentrying to register the China Democracy membersof the China Democracy Party, Chen Zhonghe and Xiao Shichang, the Information Center said. ters to Santa are a common sight. They come in a mishmash of languages from all corners of the globe. The letters filter in like One of Bean’s crusades as superintendent was to increase the stray snowflakes, year-round. But as Christmas approaches, the light flurry turns into a storm. And every year, a group of about 25 volunteers works to make sure every letter is answered, z all schoolchildren attend class at least 180 days and for at least four hoursa day The state school board had allowed schools to cut back on the numberofschool days as long as students were in class at least 990 hours during the year. As result, many schools added minutes to For the members of Santa’s Elves Inc., the holiday season is a busy time as the group works to read and answer the approximately 10,000 letters to Santa each day so they could go half that filter into the town every year. days or not at all on Fridays. When Beanoriginally tried to Santa’s Elves board member convince lawmakers to fund a Patricia Kochsaid townsfolk have no takers, When the requirement was loweredto 200 days, interest years. Thetradition began in 1914 220-day schoolyear, there were mounted, Currently, there are 21 schools across the state offering extended schedules to their student bodies. Chinese Police Arrest Members of Fledgling Political Party wrongdirection.” KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE It said a fifth member of the party, Lai Jinbiao, was detained Monday in Hangzhou, in eastern China, after making a speech in a public park demanding the Com- munist Party carry out political reforms. It also reported the arrest on Mondayof one of the party’s first organizers, Wang Youcai, who has been detained in an undis- closed location for a month. AIR DUCT CLEANING shortly after World War I. Koch added the nonprofit group also collects donations to cover the postage expense. ‘The lettersfilter into town with a wide variety of addresses. “' SANTA CLAUS, Ind. — In this small Spencer County town,let- schoolday. I don’t see anyoneset- measures and to create higher certification standards for teach- R-Draper, Volunteers continue tradition that began in 1914 the school year and then the ers While Laing got the promotion, we should do what's best To Answer Santa Letters ion, recently was named chairman of the senate appropriations education subcommittee. “T know he was disappointed in the failure of his plan to extend tion system, > Indiana Town Gets Ready ment-school system and h, Laing had help Wednesday, December2, 1998 emplary advocate of the goven dents is a good one,” he said. been answering Santa letters for when town postmaster James Martin answered hisfirst letter for Santa. Koch’s father, Jim Yel- lig, joined Martin on the task whenhereturned from the Navy _ “I got one yesterday addressed to ‘Santa Claus, Arctica,’ and it got through,” she added. Reading children’s lettersi moving experience, she adde “We get some sad poignant letters. They write Santaall of théir t fears, their secrets and their joys.” Koch added someoftheletters contain interesting requests. “The funniest one I got last yearsaid, ‘Dear Santa, I want my dad to be smarter.’ Someof them ask for an airplane, and some of them are pages and pages of things. But then there are the wonderful ones that say, ‘I want my mommyto have something be- cause she works real hard.’”” @ Letters to Santa or donations to cover postage costs can be sent to: Santa Claus, P.O. Box 788, Santa Claus, IN 47579. Notice to Medicare | HMO Members | | The HMOsin Utah will discontinue coverage for Medicare! | beneficiaries on January 1, 1999. Utah beneficiaries; | enrolled in an HMO will returnto Original Medicare. “| For information about coverage using Original Medicare and supplemental insurance, call (801) 538-3910 (inside Salt Lake County) or 1-800-439-3805, orvisit the Medicare website at www.medicare. gov. | | Remember, youarestill in the Medicare program | andyouwill receive all Medicare covered services. Q _|Whole House Package|! SFTP $149.95 | MEMBER UTAH BUREAU E Call For Details ee ee eee J We’re Utah’s Largest We‘ Will Not Be Undersold! Party, then they will not be al- Duct Cleanez! cat Duct Pros 355-8719 Sz CD ef (7) AUCcE lowed to exist,” Li said in an interview carried Tuesday by the official Xinhua News Agency. 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