Page 10 University Daily Kansan, June 29, 1983 Police officials, janitors prepare for Reagan Steven PurcelI/KANSAN Pat McFadden, Alexandria, Va., technician for the White House Communications Agency, adjusts the microphones that President Reagan will use at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School, Shawnee. By DAVID SWAFFORD Staff Writer The police officers directing traffic in the parking lot at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School in Shawnee were a bit more stern than usual yesterday morning. After all, the police should be at that site in less than 36 hours. Those Shawnee Mission School District police officers, along with the Secret Service and other area law enforcement officers, have been given the responsibility of assuring that President Reagan arrives and leaves safely after he addresses a conference of the National Association of Student CouncilsNational Association of Student Activity Advisers. THEY ALSO WILL control any protests that may occur. But not only were the police officers outside feeling a little more anxious, everyone inside was, too. And that included school custodians, the principal, hundreds of delegates, White House Press Corps officials, lighting and sound crews, the Secret Service and several local media people. Frank Mermoud, the school's principal, said that about 30 custodians were Steven Purcell/KANSAN High school student council representatives from around the state gather around the podium where President Reagan will address students this afternoon in the Shawnee Mission Northwest High School gymnasium. Thejanitorial staff supervisor,Arnold Dennis, declined to comment what his staff was doing to prepare for the president's visit. at Northwest helping the Secret Service any way they could. "We really don't want anyone to know what all goes on," he said in his basement office. "We are working very closely with the Secret Service and we just want security to be as tight as possible." MERMOUD SAID THE Secret Service had been working in the building since Sunday and, according to several conference student delegates from Pennsylvania, the men working for the Secret Service wore tan suits, were very low-keyed and always had a serious look on their faces. Several were spotted yesterday. They all had a receiver wire running from their suit coat into their ear and when they would talk, they would open their suit coats, duck their heads down and whisper. Mermoud said that the general feeling inside the school was one of frustration, "the whole day." β€œIt’s very exciting to have the president of the United States come here. How many high schools does a president usually visit? Not very many. The school will benefit greatly from the presence of where the president visits,” he said. "Even though he will be up there speaking to everybody, I think every single delegate will feel as though the speech was directed to himself," she said. "Student council is a great thing and we are finally getting the recognition we deserve, by the president coming here." Sonya Miller, a student delegate from Pennsylvania, said that President Reagan speaking at this conference made all the delegates feel good. "TIM SO EXCITED about this trip and the president's speech that I called my mother up in Pennsylvania and told her had to watch on the national news." As students danced to reggae music outside, technicians were busy inside the gym setting up the presidential podium, the press platform, special lighting equipment and the sound system. Presidential blue draped the speech platform as well as the press platform. About 250 journalists will be at the annual international network and local media people. STACKS OF FOLDING chairs and piles of telephones were on the gymnasium floor. Amid the pounding of hammers, technicians from the White House Communications Agency were busy stretching microphone, speaker cord and cable. In the front of the podium, setting up two teleprompters, was Pat McFadden, a technician with the White House Communications Agency. McFaden said that the two teleprompters were set at the base on each side of the podium from which the president would deliver his speech. Glass reflectors sitting on 6-feet 1-inch high legs on each side of the podium are designed to reflect the speech from the teleprompters into the president's view. MofCaden the reflectors were set at 6-feet 1-inch high because that is the height for the water "THE GLASS REFLECTORS only reflect from one side, the one which will face the president," he said. "Since there is a reflector on each side of the podium, he will be able to look at both sides of the gym." "Most people will not notice the glass reflectors, and even if they did, they would not know the speech is scrolling in front of his eyes off those televised book as if he were just talking to the audience and not reading a speech," he said. According to McPadden, the agency sets up the platforms for each presi- "We'll be lucky if we're done by twelve o'clock tonight," he said yesterday. "And as soon as we're done, the Secret Service will come in and comb through the gym to to check for anything that might embarrass or harm the president. They will do it again when the band members leave their instruments in here and the press leave their equipment in here." WHILE ALL OF this was going on Northwest High School, John Roberts, an official of the White House Press Corps, was at the Crown Center Hotel planning the president's arrival at the high school. "He will land at the downtown airport, shake hands with Mayor Richard Berkley and Governor Kit Bond and then climb into a limousine and be off," he said. "The meeting at the airport will be very brief. "The Secret Service will have a route blocked off from traffic for his motorcade to travel and they will go directly to the school. After his speech, he will leave for the airport and go to L.A. to attend a memorial service. He will spend a couple hours in Kansas City." The National Association of Secondary School Principalis is sponsoring the conference and the president's appearance. Lewis Armistead, public relations director of the association, has been busy making sure that all the preparations for the conference are the whole conference, run smoothly. Tour of redevelopment site scheduled "Tomorrow, the day after the president's trip and the last day of the conference, I want to have a nervous breakdown," he said. The Downtown Improvement Committee will sponsor a walking tour of the proposed site for downtown redevelopment at 8 a.m. tomorrow. The tour, given by the city's developer and likely to be opened on the walkway between J.C. Penney's and Ernst Hardware in the 800 block of Massachusetts St. Bankruptcy hits schools in California Thomas Griffin, a Sacramento attorney hired by the district to guide it through bankruptcy proceedings, estimated the district would be $3 million short when it closed its books on the 1982-83 school year. The 43-school district, with 32,000 students and 2,900 employees, is the first substantial casualty of an overall decline in the financial condition and academic standards of state public schools. THE PROCEEDINGS WERE not expected to prevent the district's schools from reopening in the fall, and the teachers' union charged the filing was a maneuver to avoid raising teachers' pay. California ranks last among the 50 states in the amount of personal income spent for public education, about $200 less than the national average, according to the California Department of Education. Chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Act, "unlike the better known Chapter 11," Griffin said, would not force the district into receivership. Trustees of the San Jose Unified School District, the 10th largest in California, voted unanimously to order bankruptcy tomorrow in federal court. The school district's economic woes are blamed on the lingering aftershocks of tax-slashing Proposition 10, overwhelmingly passed by California voters in 1977; a drop in funds at the state level; a 14 percent drop in enrollment in the past six years; and increases in teachers' salaries. THE VOTE WAS NO surprise. District Superintendent Lillian Barna said before the meeting that the move was "virtually assured." The school system's lawyer said no school district in Alabama had declared bankruptcy since 1963. "The trustees would still be running the district," he said. "Chapter 9 merely allows them to restructure their staff, but they are not as the ones signed with the teachers." SAN JOSE, Calif. β€” The main school system in San Jose declared bankruptcy yesterday. The action is thought to be the first time a public school system has decided to file bankruptcy papers since the Depression. By United Press International UNLIKE A BUSINESS or individual who files bankruptcy under Chapter 11, public agencies under Chapter 9 can have the court approve their repayment plans without the approval of creditors. A meeting will be held the tour at 10:30 a.m. in City Hall, 6th and Massachusetts streets, to discuss the downtown redevelopment plan. 10% Discount Parts & Labor On service repair work performed by Jack Ellena Buick-Olds-GMC, Inc. 2112 W. 29th Street. Coupon must be presented at time of repair order write-up to qualify. Offer good until July 29th, 1983. Computerark KNOWLEDGE SERVICE EDUCATION COMMODORE EPON MOREMOS 10350 KAY PRO MOREMOS 10350 W. Wrth. 34 bk 6 81-0994 HERITAGE MANAGEMENT CORP JACK ELLENA BUICK OLD-GMC. INC. 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