The Morning News from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 19

Court criticizes Gcbclein. B-3 Record and Obituaries B-10, Weather B-1 1 Sunday News Journal 1979 B-1 Au Clair School is inadequate by N.Y.'s standards Sept. 30, 'POPCORN By MARGARET KIRK A preliminary New York state report on the controversial Au Clair School in Delaware has concluded that the school is grossly inadequate and should be taken off the Empire State's approved list of schools for autistic children. According to Sharifa Flagg, an associate with New York's Education Department, the Au Clair program does not meet the educational, vocational or social needs of the children." Ms. Flagg said she believes that the school will not be recommended for approval.

Knowledge of the report comes just days before Delaware officials are expected to announce whether or not the controversial school near St. Georges should be closed. In part, the report confirms the findings of Delaware officials, who last June decided that the school should not have its license When told of the New York report last week, one Delaware official Staff photo by Ron Dubick ArA vendors Victorian Joanne McNamara (right) and Jechebet Roos ran the popcorn cart yesterday at the Victorian Fair on the 800 block of the Market Street Mall. The fair marked the reopening of the Grand Opera House and brought back some pre-inflation memories. The popcorn, for example, sold for 50 cents a box.

planning, monitoring and evaluation. Former Au Clair staff members told the News-Journal papers during the papers' own month-long investigation of the school that the punishment was at times violent and abusive. Kenneth M. Mazik, owner and executive director of the school, called the Delaware report "the most unprofessional work" he had ever seen. He said it was based on interviews with "disgruntled who had either been fired, terminated or quit the school during the last two years.

Ms. Flagg and Fred Simms, with New York's Division of Social Services, visited the school on June 12 and 13, just three days after Delaware had notified the school that its license had been denied. Neither knew how many New York students were at the school, but officials here said there were about six. A copy of Ms. Flagg's Au Clair report was obtained by the Sunday News Journal last week.

New York officials now say the report should not have been released because it has yet to receive final approval and the school has not been told of its conclusions. They stressed last week that the report was preliminary, and had to receive approval from a special council before it was final. The report was released to the News-Journal papers from the department's legal affairs office. Simms has refused to discuss his portion of the Au Clair report. Ms.

Flagg said it contained information about the buildings, grounds and school activities. She said that their conclusions about Au Clair were the same: that the school should not be approved. "I really felt badly for the kids. I felt like I didn't want to leave them there, because I didn't know what would happen," she said. "I didn't feel like they were abused, I just felt like they were neglected." Ms.

Flagg's report concentrated primarily on how the children were being taught in classrooms and at other times such as meal times during the day. It concluded: That there were not enough teachers, school supplies or materials to properly educate the students. The report noted that students would sit idle for as long as 40 minutes while instructors worked individually with other students. The Delaware report listed the same concerns. That there is no speech therapist on the staff "a key area of instruction for autistic children." The school had indicated in individual student programs and in its brochures that there was a speech therapist.

Again, the Delaware report said the same. That the teachers were not certified; too many students were in each teaching group, and certified See'IFELT'-B-2 Sousa returns to Ite viewer and concert-goers 'could almost smell the powder'. 'I felt like (hey were neglected at Au Clair School' said, "It's a relief to know that someone agreed with us." Au Clair School is home for about 30 socially withdrawn, mentally disturbed autistic children. It received national attention several years ago as the home of the fabled Silk Stockings, the harness racing horse that set world records and supposedly kept the school going with its winnings. On June 6, following a seven-month investigation of the school by the state attorney general's office and the Division of Social Services, Delaware denied the school a new license.

The agencies gave the school 60 days to comply with specific state standards for residential facilities and regain the license. If it does not, the school may be closed. Since Aug. 9, state officials have been reviewing the school's efforts to comply, and a decision on whether to keep the school open or not is expected to be announced this week. The Delaware investigation that led to the June report concluded that Au Clair was understaffed and poorly managed, and that its staff intentionally and falsely exaggerated what services it offered to its students.

The most striking of the state's findings, according to the investigative report, was the unprofessional use of punishment at the school as a form of therapy for the children. The report said that punishment was used repeatedly without proper By OTTO DEKOM John Philip Sousa must have felt quite at home last night. The Grand Opera House has been almost completely restored to the appearance it might have presented when he made his first of a half-dozen appearances on Oct. 29, 1892. Sousa was there again last night to help open the new season.

His spirit was everywhere during the exciting gala concert by the Heritage Band. It was not even difficult to see America's march king in the flesh, since conductor Keith Brion was dressed and made up to look like Sousa the same slight figure, droopy moustache and fussy walk, the same mannerisms on the podium, even the same kiss on the hand for the lady soloist. Since Sousa lived into the age of movies, his style and looks are a matter of filmed record. The illusion did fade somewhat, however, when Brion shook his head, loosing clouds of the white powder used to gray his hair. The program was the kind Sousa himself might have presented to delight audiences at home and abroad, including band transcriptions of popular "classics," oper- atic airs, instrumental solos and his own compositions.

I was, however, horrified to discover that the program did not list a single Sousa march. This turned out to be only a trick, the kind of showmanship Sousa himself might have employed to tease and surprise audiences. The applause had hardly died down for the "Light Cavalry" overture which launched the program before Brion leaped back on the podium and gave the vigorous Sousa downbeat. There it was, in all its glory: One of the greatest works of music produced by an American composer, "The Washington Post" march. And there was much more.

The conductor gave a quick bow at the end and brought down the baton for "The Thunderer." After that, marches kept popping up between programmed numbers throughout the evening. A march was also contained in the "El Capi-tan" suite from one of Sousa's operettas. While the book has not aged open the well, the title march is still in the band repertory. The Heritage Band made a particularly colorful spectacle of "The Field Artillery" march, which became a theme song for World War I. You could almost see the "caissons go rolling along." You could smell the powder, too, when the tympanist punctuated the beat with real gunshots.

Four trombones materialized at midpoint to add more power to some powerful band playing. No John Philip Sousa program could possibly be complete without "Stars and Stripes Forever" and "Semper Fidelis" (the hymn of the U. S. Marines). These came as the evening's rousing finale.

It must be mentioned that the program also offered the grand march from "Aida." Even though composer Giuseppe Verdi did not have the advantage of being an American, it is only fair to admit that the imposing march he com- Staff photo by Ron Dubick Grand posed was entirely worthy of the Sousa band. Among the unprogrammed surprises was Sousa's "Three Solitairs," which featured a trio of fine horns. Another highlight was an aria from Donizetti's "Don Pasquale" by Kathy Wright, a very fine soprano. She encored with the coloratura air, "Caro Nome" from "Rigoletto." An impressive solo number was "Bride of the Waves" by H. L.

Clarke, with cornettist Robert Nagel. This is one of those grand showpieces which demands high technical skill and musical understanding. The band concert was the culmination of the day-long Victorian Fair sponsored by the Grand Opera House Guild. The Market Street Mall was filled with stalls selling good things to eat, books and other items. The high-point of this annual fund-raising endeavor was the "celebrity auction," which offered the public lunches prepared by or on behalf of well-known local personalities.

The highest price was $100 paid by Ron Mazik, who is planning a collection of boutiques and restaurants on the mall sometime this fall, for lunch with New See SOUSA B-4 Md. police in scuffle with crowd By JENNIFER SCHENKER SALISBURY, Md. A state trooper and two city police officers were injured after they were surrounded by a bottle-throwing crowd of 200 people while attempting to impound a car late Friday night. Police said the incident began when Trooper Thomas J. McCarthy, 33, was chasing a car driven by David Neal, 23, of Jersey Road, Salisbury, for "numerous traffic violations." Police gave the following account of what then happened: Neal turned into the Grant Shopping Center Parking lot on Cyprus Street, and abandoned the car.

An initial search for Neal failed and while McCarthy was impounding the car, Neal returned. By that time two other state police cars had arrived to assist McCarthy. McCarthy arrested Neal "using what force was necessary" but was injured in the scuffle. McCarthy, who suffered a stretched cartilage on the eighth rib, was treated at Peninsula General Hospital in Salisbury and released. Neal was charged with assault and battery and committed to the Wicomico County Jail in lieu of $2,000 bond.

Police said that a crowd began to gather as Neal was being arrested. See CONFRONTATION B-3 Great Organ Caper has its bass notes, too I On the surface, Conrad J. Shuman and John Matushefske have little in common. Shuman is a teacher and educational administrator who worked his way up from the classroom through the State Department of Public Instruction to the superin-tendency of the New Castle County Vocational-Technical School Dis trict with the help of a doctorate in education from Rutgers University. Matushefske dropped out of school after the ninth grade, got his high school equivalency certificate in the Navy, and worked as a fireman, laborer, truck driver and auto salesman while inching his way into public life in Delaware.

As befits a man in his profession, Shuman talks of priorities, projects and, of course, quality programs. John Matushefske, explaining his extraordinary clout as just one of 41 members of the state House of Representatives, talks of favors, deals and friendship. A few years ago, when he was instrumental in getting Hiram Warder appointed to the Family Court bench despite a bar association finding that Warder was unqualified, Matushefske explained that Warder had provided him with legal services when he got in trouble while serving as a magistrate. Warder never sent a bill. "Now," said Matushefske, moments before Warder was confirmed for the judgeship, "after 10 years, he's getting paid." Ralph Moyed Matushefske's philosophy is straightforward: "You have to give something to get something." In his recent dealings with Matushefske, Con Shuman mostly has been giving and Matushefske has been getting.

It was the other way around in 1977. Shuman had been appointed superintendent of the vocational-technical district in 1976 with the backing of an influential cabal of politicians, citizens and bureaucrats. At the time, the vocational-technical district had only one school, Delcastle, but a lot of friends. One friend, it turned out, was state Rep. John Matushefske.

Matushefske took up expansion of the vocational-technical district with all the fierce dedication he once applied to measures to give more money to asphalt contractors. Matushefske introduced a bill to extend the hegemony of the vocational-technical district to the vocational schools operated by the Wilmington and Newark school districts, and got the bill through both houses of the General Assembly. See IT'S B-4 And the winnah Dogs are commonly known as man's best friends, but Zephyr, a 10-month-old Afghan pup, didn't do too badly for this young girl. The dog won a blue ribbon for owner Valerie Hawk, 11, of Wilmington, yesterday at the Children's Dog Show at Delaware Park..