The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 154

EAGER TO LEARN Crowded into a tent, less than ideal conditions for teaching, Vietnamese youngsters nevertheless maintain attention as their American teacher conducts a lesson. With daily attendance rang ing between 12,500 and 13,000 students of all ages, facilities are taxed, and not all are able to find seats, as with youngsters at left, balancing a tablet on his knee. Teachers report no discipline problems. REWARD IS IN RESULTS Volunteer Teachers Help Refugees Master English BY KEITH TAKAHASHI Timet Staff Writer The Marine Corps squad tents at classes at the Camp Pendleton refugee Camp Pendleton squat like olive drab center. School has arrived at the refugee mushrooms along the dry stream bed camps in the form of the Pendleton of Cristiamtos Canyon.

As the sun nears its zenith in the Refugee Education Program (PREP). Hod Sngeles crimes Southeast Edition Part VII THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 1975 Compton Police Chief Ousted by Acting Manager in i -4, MissiW I ts. tliiiiftf cloudless sky, students and teachers Developed and administered by the roll up the side flaps of the tents in San Diego Education Department, hopes of catching a wisp of a breeze in PREP is financed through a $440,000 this isolated portion of Camp Pendle- grant from the U.S. Department of ton just south of San Clemente. Health, Education and Welfare Inside one of the tents, an American (HEW).

The program ends on Sept 15. teacher, reading from a lesson plan, PREPs goal, educators explain, is to asks her class "What's the matter?" teach survival English. Lessons are The Vietnamese youngsters, eager aimed at providing sufficient mastery to show off their newly acquired of English to shop for food, ask direc- Knowieage, emnusiasucany respond "i tions, deal with public agencies, seek am tired. I am medical treatment and other essential Later, another teacher turns to a items. colleague and says: "I've never seen The key to the program's success are it.

Even at the end of volunteer teachers, says G. Stuve, in the tents. They ask if PREPs acting director. anything like class they sta; there is anything like class they stay "we are averaging anywnere from about 60 teacher volunteers a day from all over California," says David The search is on for volunteers to Wiebrecht, PREPs program coordina- is on for Please Turn to Page 8, CoLl TELLING TIME Using illustrations, Mrs. Carol Feeney gives refugees lesson in how to tell time.

serve as teachers for survival English If I TIMES PHOTOS BY STEVE RICE Lkmf- 1 JlY. I i BY TOM GORMAN Times Staff Writer COMPTON Police Chief Thomas W. Cochee was fired Wednesday by acting City Manager Daniel Lim on charges of insubordination, willfully making false statements to the press and failure to follow personnel rules and regulations. Lim emphasized the decision was "unilateral," and that he reached it without receiving any direction from the City Council. "It was an administrative decision solely on my part as the chief administrative officer of this city," he said in a hastily called press conference in his office.

Concurrent with his announcement, the termination notice was personally delivered to Cochee by the Police Department's number two ranking officer, Manuel Correa, who since last week has been serving as acting police chief. Cochee, 43, left the Police Department headquarters shortly after having received the notice and could not be reached for comment. Cochee's attorney, Benjamin Wyatt, said of Lim's action: "we believe this is a power play to destroy the effectiveness of the Compton Police Department and we will demand that a full scale public hearing be conducted by the personnel board so all the issues can be resolved. "The chief emphatically denies each and every charge against him as being without foundation and without merit," Wyatt said. Cochee's right to appeal is afforded to him under the protection of Civil Service procedures and the city's own personnel rules and regulations.

Ironically, one of seven reasons stated by Lim for firing Cochee was that the chief himself had failed to follow those personnel rules. Specifically, Lim said, Cochee should have protested to the Personnel Board his reassignment last week from the chief's office to the City Manager's Office, where he was to conduct an evaluation of federal programs dealing with lqpal law enforcement. Instead, said Lim, Cochee aired his grievances over his reassignment at an "unauthorized" press conference on the steps of the Police Department last Thursday. At that conference Cochee charged that one member of the council was a convicted felon, and that there was a conspiracy to turn over the administration of the department to "criminal elements." In an earlier interview, Cochee told The Times he suspected that at least Please Turn to Page 4, Col. 1 HOW ARE YOU? Jerry Hunsaker of Los Alamitos gives children lesson in proper greeting of friends.

SERIOUS STUDENT Vietnamese lad listens attentively to teacher. Lynwood Raises "qrwalk-la mirada trustees Tax Rate 53 Cents Philosophical Clash Ends 10-Year Peace WHITTIER ASKED TO BUY HISTORIC HARVEY HOUSE WHITTIER The city is being asked to consider purchase of the historic Harvey House. Built in 1888 for entrepreneur C. W. Harvey, the 5854 Painter Ave.

residence is currently owned by Dr. Gordon Hatcher. The house is considered an example of turn-of-the-century architecture. It is for this reason that the council-appointed Historical Committee is recommending city purchase of the two-story home. The residence could be used as a museum.

Councilmen plan to meet with the committee, but a meeting date has not been set. An independent appraisal places a $60,000 value on the home, said Louis Lopez, assistant city manager. The committee is "acting principally" on a letter from Hatcher to one of its members, according to Lopez. Some of the home's furnishings would be included in the purchase, he said. BY LARRY LANE Timet Staff Writer Earlier this year the seven trustees of the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District were unanimous in offering Supt.

Maury Ross a new contract with salary hike. Board members took turns praising Ross one calling him the finest public schools superintendent in California, while others lauded his work with employe groups and his efforts to generate more state money for district programs. Today, in retrospect, board members savor that moment of solidarity. For overall, this year has marked the first continued public airing of philosophical differences among trustees in the 10-year history of the district No board member has suggested that Ross or any other high-ranking administrator find employment elsewhere at least not in public But while Trustees Polly Blankenbeckler, Mike Westerlin and Lucille Colin have generally supported administrative recommendations, board members Ralph Davis, Harold "Jim" Hough and Jesse Luera have openly questioned many staff proposals. Says board President Alvin Beck, who often must cast the deciding vote and who usually sides with the Blankenbeckler-Westerlin-Colln camp: "Sometimes I feel like a traffic cop trying to unsnarl a rush hour traffic jam.

It seems we start out in the same direction and then wham! everybody is at cross purposes." Mra Blankenbeckler, the only trustee to serve on the board since the district was unified in 1965, has suggested on occasion "that some of the members of the board don't do their homework." Davis counters that he sometimes asks questions in public session that "I know the answers to, but I just think our staff should explain in some detail to members of the audience who might not otherwise understand." Mrs. Colin suggests that if board members are unsure about items in staff reports, there is time before board meetings for trustees to question administrators. Hough disagrees, noting that if "everybody else on the board has the same question, an administrator must respond seven times to answer us individually rather than one time collectively." Beck says that public questioning of staff members by trustees can "sometimes be embarrassing if an administrator does not have the answer in front of him." Luera says district officials "have failed to go into depth in some reports, apparently because of a board tradi-Please Turn to Page 12, Col. 1 BY MARY BARBER Timet Staff Writer LYNWOOD The city property tax rate went up a whopping 53 cents when the City Council this week settled on an all-time high in order to pay for a new safety personnel retirement system. The tax for the coming year will be $1.61 per $100 of assessed valuation.

Last year it was $1.08. Most of the difference, 46 cents, was a compromise of sorts allocated to pay for the retirement program approved by voters in last March's election. The total retirement fund for the 1975-76 fiscal year totals $482,700. However, included in this amount is $84,000 borrowed from general revenue sharing funds which some members of the council balked at paying back immediately. The compromise of 46 cents would allow for partial repayment of the borrowed money this year, Please Turn to Page 4, Col.

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