John E. Cod ell been named director of the Detroit Hou ing Dep rtment, effective June 22. Codwell, 59, retired as istant uperintendent of the Detroi t Public School in charge of the Office in Support Service in 1989. In that po i tion, he over aw the maintenance of all chool buildings, the chool ecurlty department, tudent transportation, publications, and food ervice with a combined total of more than 4,000 personnel. More recently, he ha served as a facility use planning consultant with the Board of Education. For the la t year he ha served as assi tant superintendent in charge of Buildings, and Mechanical Maintenance in the City Recreation Department N.J. officials learn how to end devil's night fire DETROIT (AP) _­ To learn how Detroit does it, officials from Camden, New Jersey were met with Mayor Coleman Young and some of the 36,000 vol- . .h.t.UJl.�rs who. helped limit ber of ,Oct. 30 flres 10 62, down from 141 in 1990. In Camden, population about 87,000, Halloween eve is known as Mischief Night. I..-t year Camden had 133 fires, the most in a single night in the city's history. "The problems Detroit confronts seem to get here a couple years earlier, but they get to other places, too," mayoral spokesman Bob Berg said. For the period Oct. 28- 30, the mayor's office gave a total of 156 blazes, a 44 percent drop from the 281 reported in 1990. The peak year was 1984, when 810 f1l'CS were reported. "Proportionally, their fires were worst than ours," Berg said. White Jevvish woman's bias charge upheld NBW YORK - In an wuual dJscrirnination case, a Federal agerx:y IVfi fourxl that a � mamgerat a New YorkQty 1alth clinic WM Jetaliated agaimt atler she faced �n at work becauSe * is white and JewBh. � agaq-� dvfi rlgbts f1- flee of the United Stilts Depart­ ment of Health and Human Services-� also � � s\S8in dIup. Discrimimtion cases bro� by whi� workm are rare. At the Federal Equal EmpJo�m 0p­ portunity Commission, officials said that only 3 peItint of � aimination C8geS am\Blly cane tianwhi . Child service workers recommend advocacy, system reform LEAH A UEL flW'rhr Nearly 100 ocial workers, fo ter parents and doptive p ren gathered for a conference, "Meeting the Challenge, Keep­ ing the Promi ." The conference, held June 22 at the Mercy College Conference Center, w forum for di c ing i ue rei ted to the current � ter care and adoption system. Lieutenant Governor Connie Binsfeld revealed the re ul ts of a tudy by the Bin feld Commis ion on Adoption and Fo ter Care. She said that, according to the study, the current y tem contradicts itself. "Sometimes the very sy tern de igned to protect the children i barrier to their placement," she said. "The y tern is design d to ecure them, but ometime it loc them in." Binsfeld added that the recommend - tion re ulting from the tudy includ d elimin ting barriers to adoption. "The e include t te and legl I tive bar­ riers, gency barrie , and mo t import nt­ ly, attitude barriers," Binsfeld told ocial workers. "Change won't take place over­ night, 0 don't be di couraged." Verlie Ruffin i the ociate director of the Michigan Federation of Private Child and Family Agencie . "W ARE OT approaching a cri i , we are in the middle of a cri is," hid. "In the mid-1970s to the early 1980 we thought we had a vision, and we thought that by the 1990 we would have the answers, but we don't." Ruffin said that children are entering th adoption and foster care system ooner and staying longer. AI 0, more of th children have special needs uch as phy ical and emotional problems. More children in the system are older children, children of color nd group of iblin , Ruf In id. Sh emph ized th t in order to olve problem in the doption nd fo ter c re y tern, adoption wor ers would h ve to begin d­ dre ing other problems th t contribute to it, uch unemployment, homele n crime, drug, nd teen ge pregn ncy. "As human ervice wor ers in ocial work," Ruffin id, "we think we have to olve all the problems. But our ultimate responsibility i to re pond to the cri is, nd we cannot re pond to ny cri is until we have the ppropriate tools to do 0 in the public ector, the agency aren . We need re ource . "We need to de ign a front-end family preservation unit to insure that, where ap­ propriate, children never enter the y tern, and that the children in it come out in a timely fashion," she added. o recommended items uch a improving access to familie for children awaiting adoption and alternative ervice for children that are not adopted. CLEAN-UP - Benton Harbor NOW organized a beautification effort for that outhwestern Michigan city. City Clerk Margaret Adams (left) gets help from Marcus Lewis, Earl aenaon and Billy Davis. (photo by B. Brown) Black students get summer boost at U-M The program, which end Friday, is being held at Schembechler Hall on the University of Michigan cam­ pus. It is sponsored by the district am funded by it and a variety of other sources. ANN ARBOR, Miell. (AP) - For about 160 African American chil­ dren, a two-week summer program could mean a boost in self esteem aJ¥J a leg up when they return to the Ann Arbor public schools this fall, Its organizer says. "We're trying to increase the success rate of Black students," said Summer Academy founder William Ratcliff. Poll: Race relations bad and getting wor e NEW YORK (AP) _ A new poll says most New Yorkers think race relations are bad and getting worse, am it's at least partly the media's fault. The study, released Friday, was the first of a series planned by the Empire State Survey. The urvey, a privately funded research organiza­ tion, questioned 1,237 people at random between May 19 and June 8. The group said the results were considered accurate within three per­ centage points. It found 54 percent of the respondents thought race relations were "generally bad," 22 percent thought they were "generally good," am nearly 23 percent either had mixed views or didn't know .. Among Blacks and Latino , nearly 60 percent held the view that racial relations were bad, while 52 percent of whites and 45 percent of Asians believed that, it said. The poll fouoo 53 percent of time queried thought relations were worsening, including 59 percent of Latira, 55 percent of Blacks am 51 percent of whit . Twenty-two percent tmught things were improv­ ing and 21 percent w no change. ,About 6S percent of those queried said newspapers am television create a distorted view that makes race relations seem worse than they really are, t� survey report said. Twenty percent thought the reporting w about right, and 9 percent aid it made things appear better than they are. It said that bowed a marked Iocreese in distrust of the media since a 1990 poll by The York Tim , which found 53 percent of New . Yorkers believed racial problems were exaggerated by new reports. dents interested in getting ahead in math and science, Ratcliff said. Ratcliff, a counselor a� Tappan Middle School, runs a similar Week­ end Academy during the school year for middle-school students. The 18 percent of Ann Arbor stu­ dents who are Black have trouble finding a "comfort zone" Insclence and math etas e , sometimes be­ cause of covert, If not overt, racism, Ratcliff aid. . "Kids want to learn," Ratcliff said. "I don't think people under­ stand that. But they want to be in an environment where they feel rom­ fortable. "We concentrate on the po itive scientists and mathematicians who are African-Americans ... so they feel connected." Ratcliff said the program tries to' help Black students succeed even when they-perceive bias, "to make them realize that whether they feel the system loves or hates them, they must put forth the effort regardless." MORNING ACTIVlTIES in­ clude small cl es. Afternoons are occupied with a variety of enrich­ ment programs. "Education is important so you can get a job and make somethi og out of your life," said Charles Mer­ cer III, a Tappan seventh-grader. . "You get to be more yourself," aid Tappan seventh-grader Stacey Fulgham. She said the academy's teacher help her pinpoint her strengths and weaknesses. "We need to clo e the door 0 that children re not pouring into th y tern," id Cl ren e' Willi. re upervi or for doptions nd fo ter care t the Dep rtment of Social Service . "Children come into the y tem t an e rlier a e, tay in an verage of 36 mont and h ve an ver ge of five pl cements," he aid, dding that f mily pre ervation hould be one goal of a new adoption nd fo ter care y tem. It was generally agreed that ocial workers hould become more involved in changing the y tern. "We must become advocate, nd be willing to tear down wall and get rid of the turf line (between agencie )," Ruffin ide "Slowly but urely we must create a change," agreed Jametta Lilly, coordinator and consultant for po t-adoption and early intervention with the Detroit-Wayne Coun­ ty Mental Health Board. "We have to come out from behind that desk and get involved with those families." STUDENTS IN SIXTH grade am older are participating. Summer Academy is not a reme­ dial program. Its goal is to help stu- .World CUp ge state aid State Representative Charlie J. Harrison, Jr. (D-Pontiac) an­ nounced a $400,000 grant to the City of Pontiac as additional support for the World Cup Soc­ cer Games which are to be played at the Pontiac Silverdome in 1994. Rep. Harrison today presented a check in the amount of $400,000 to Pontiac' Mayor Wallace Holland at City Hall. The grant came from the state's local recreation bond grants under Public Act 83 of 1992. Rep. Harrison offered the amendment to the bill to include monies for the World Cup Games. In pre enting the check, Rep. Harrison said, "I am elated to be able to secure this funding for the city as it makes history by hosting the first indoor World Cup games. "THE PR�ENCE of the World Cup reinforces the po i­ tion that the Pontiac Silverdome is undeniably an a et to the en­ tire tate, riot just to a particular region of the state," he said. , The games are expected to generate about $100 million for the southea t Michigan economy, and more than 500,000 fans are expected to at­ tend. According to Harri on, today's $400,000 grant will "go a long way toward helping en­ sure that Pontiac and the Silver­ dome can continue the ame type of excellent operation and programming which put it in the position to attract the World Cup Games." The. annual Silverdome Sub- idy, originally e tabli hed as an $800,000 annual allocation, but reduced to $400,000 in the 1991- 92 Department of Agriculture budget, wa vetoed by Governor Engler. The subsidy come from restricted revenue from race track betting and has erved to help reduce any financial as­ si tance that the City and its tax­ paying citizens may have had to provide to the Silverdome.