JR (8 page)

—Dan? Mister Hyde, on our new school board. This is Dan diCe- phalis, Mister…

—Major Hyde, Dan. Good meeting you… loomed worsted with a bluish tinge in arbitrary sway over the pastel arrangement behind the desk, cordially drawing Mister diCephalis half out of a sleeve of knife edge pressed nondescript. —We all know Dan here from the school television. Driver training, right Dan?

—That, ah, yes I started giving that course but…

—Did a fine job too Major, but Vogel's taken that chore on now. Vogel, the coach, he has a real sense of ahm, of cars, yes and doing a very fine job. We've saved Dan's talents here for …

—Some elementary math and physics…

—On tape, Miss Flesch closed in and bit and scarred her bun and smiled the lipstick on her teeth.

—Dan's our school psychologist now, or psycho… psycho…

—metrician. Psycho…

—Psychometrician, yes. In charge of all our testing and, and doing a fine job, yes. That's why I wanted him in on this ahm, these budget questions, this equipment, some of the new testing equipment…

—We're talking about the new testing equipment, Dan.

—It's quite a budget item, yes. Now the need to justify the test results, of course, in order to justify the test results in terms of the ongoing situation, in other words, this equipment item is justified when we testor tailing, tailor testing to the norm, and since the only way we can establish this norm, in terms of this ongoing situation that is to say, is by the testing itself, somebody's going to get left out in the cold, right?

A boy who scores out at the idiot-genius level, this music-math correlation, perfectly consistent but he's running around town sticking people up with a toy pistol. Then here's one with no future at all on the standard aptitudes, but I was told…

—It isn't the equipment it's the holes, in this computerized scoring the holes that have been punched in some of the cards don't, aren't consistent with forecasts in the personality testing, the norm in each

case should…

—Right Dan, the norm in each case supporting, or we might say being supported, substantiated that is to say, by an overall norm, so that in other words in terms of the testing the norm comes out as the norm, or we have no norm to test against, right? So that presented in these terms the equipment can be shown to justify itself, in budgetary terms that is to say, would you agree, Major?

—I'll say one thing Dan, if you can present it at the budget meeting the way Whiteback's just presented it here no one will dare to argue with you, and I don't think you need to bring up these problems with your holes Dan. Might be misunderstood, lead you right back into questions about all this teaching equipment you people bought here last year that's not even unpacked.

—There's nothing wrong with it at all it's just that we, that nobody understands how to use it.

—How to utilize it yes, but…

—What you can't get through people's heads, when you're dealing with these grants and aid federal, state, foundations whatever it is, if you don't spend you don't get. See it at the corporate level all the time, mention an initial outlay and they grab for their wallets take this shelter idea now…

—Major Hyde headed up our Civil Defense Program here Dan, you may remem…

—Before it turned into a milksop rescue outfit and lost sight of the basics Dan, we're talking about bringing your mobile tv unit over and giving these youngsters a looksee at my shelter, show them what…

—Yes well of course Dan may have ahm, may not have been living here yet when it was built back in the ahm, and did a very fine job of course when it was built before the…

—Before the whole country lost sight of the basics Dan, we all saw it spread right up to the national level and giving these fine youngsters a good looksee at my shelter will get them off to a fresh start, show them what America's all about, what we have to protect…

—Yes well the youngsters of course are ahm, are youngsters yes but incorporating this shelter proposal in the new budget may not ahm, Vern that is to say, I don't think Vern will…

—I don't think Vern's head's screwed on Whiteback, if you're going to let a District Superintendent like Vern dictate to the parents of these future citizens that they can't exercise their democratic right to vote on an issue that may decide the whole…

—Yes well of course I think Senator ahm, Congressman Pecci he's dropping by to fill us in on the chances for locating this new Cultural Center here and of course his ahm, yes is that him?

—Tell him to wait, said Miss Flesch through bread, and banged the phone down.

—Wait we can't keep him waiting, he's…

—It's not him no it's Skinner, this textbook salesman Mister Skinner…

she knotted her knees, —for me.

—I'm sorry Major yes Miss Flesch here, Miss Flesch doubles in brass you might say, our top studio teacher you know that and our curriculum specialist too, she's…

—Glad to see somebody who's not afraid of work. Getting this budget across is going to take everything we can give it, they'll be

there with their hands on their wallets and their youngsters' educations will be the last thing on their minds, take this shelter proposal if they have a good look at one before they pile in and tear the idea to pieces they…

—Hello… ? Yes, yes send him right in …

—Mister…

—Congressman… ?

—No it's only, it's Mister Skinner … she recovered her balance and her knees one to the other —I'll be right out, she called at the figure retreating through the door weighted by a briefcase of Gladstone bag design past the threat of pinstripe coming up behind.

—Come in Senator come in, I know it's still Congressman just getting in the habit…

—Mister…

—Whiteback, Major…

—diCephalis, Dan, the school…

—Great pleasure…

—Congressman…

—And Miss Flesch here kind of doubles in brass you might say, right Whiteback? Handles the curriculum, and she's shaping up as a real video personality on the school tv. We're just checking out a few items before the taxpayers get their teeth into this budget, Hyde went on as the blue stone ring borne on Pecci's hand ceased darting about in handshakes and withdrew to highlight his pinstripe presence. —The only thing on their minds is their tax rate and most of them don't even know that, right Whiteback? As president of the bank and principal of this school setup Whiteback here gets a grandstand look at both sides of the coin, take the whole idea of locating this Cultural Center here, I don't see why we can't tie it right in with…

—Once we have their confidence…

—Now whether or not a campaign for bringing about this kind of confidence is the best thing, I haven't thought of that as a public relations problem, but let's not forget above all things the need of confidence, and that…

—Of course, I think nationally, it's what you and I think of the prospects…

—PRwise it can't hurt us educationwise, Miss Flesch got in through bread.

—In fact, tie it all right into this shelter item too, let people have a look with your mobile tv unit. My boy could give it sort of a tour in fact, he knows it inside out. Wall thickness, ventilation, food storage

waste disposal get in a little about what America really is, what we …

—Just give them an inch, like with the religious holidays if they all get off Good Friday the Jewish parents want them off Seder too…

—Is Seder a holiday? I thought it was a …

—Fight over prayers in the school and that gets us right into the transportation mess, they vote against busing the Catholic kids to parochial school and we can get thirteen hundred of them dumped on us over night, then where are we?

—And take this one, custodial salaries, two hundred and thirty-three- odd thousand, up from two seventeen…

—Ask Mister Leroy, that's his baby.

—Right. You mention education and they grab for their wallets. Now here's thirty-two thousand six hundred and seventy for blacktopping the parking lot over to the tv studio.

—That's the only bid that came in.

—And there's this twelve thousand dollars item for books.

—That's supposed to be twelve hundred, the twelve thousand should be paper towels. Besides, there's already that bequest for books for the library.

—Did it say books in so many words? No. It's just a bequest for the library.

—Use it for a pegboard. You need a pegboard in a library. Books you don't know what you're getting into.

—Right. Remember Robin Hood? That man Schepperman…

—Schepperman! That reminds me that lettering over the front door, Gibbs' idea…

—It's worked so far but it can't work forever, sooner or later somebody will show up who reads Greek. Then where are we?

—Up the creek, Miss Flesch obliged with a promptness that lost her some coffee down her chin, —like the smut mail.

—There's an issue. The smut mail rise.

—My boy sent off for a ball glove and what he got back in the mail was…

—Mouthpiece puller, sleigh bells, strobotuner, choir risers, tympa- nies, marching bell and stand, two thousand five hundred and … what's all that for?

—Breakage. Here, replacing glass, repairing doors, painting, refinishing and so forth, thirty-three thousand two eighty-five. Thirty- three thousand dollars for breakage, isn't that what we're really talking about? Plain unvarnished vandalism? And another fourteen thousand plus item down here, repairs and replacement, chairs, desks, project tables, pianos, same thing isn't it? Breakage… ?

—But two thousand dollars for filmstrips and five more on filmstrip projectors, movie projectors, record players, tape recorders, projection carts…

—It's already on the books…

—That's what I mean books, Miss Flesch scattered seeds. —All this

audio-visual bla bla bla and we've practically promised Duncan and Company a textbook order to Mister Skinner for…

—Thirty-three and fourteen, that's forty-three, forty-seven thousand on breakage.

—Waffle iron, sixty dollars?

—Predictable, deliberate, you might even say prescheduled breakage

…

—And doing a very fine job, too.

—I see it at the corporate level all the time. Now, getting back to the point, how about Friday for bringing your mobile tv over for a looksee at my shelter, get across the remote capabilities of microwave transmission with a good cable system…

—But not Friday, Friday we're getting a visit from the Foundation. They're sending out a team, a program specialist and a writer, to give our whole in-school television setup here the real once over for a book. I don't hardly need to say that the point in all this is to show them how we're using, utilizing this new media to motivate the cultural drive in these youngsters should give things a nice boost right up their…

—Up their alley, check. My shelter…

—My Ring… Miss Flesch got in at a bite.

—My wife… ventured Mister diCephalis, who had been busy responding to Mister Pecci's stylish appearance by squaring the handkerchief in his own breast pocket, leaving it with apparent satisfaction and a clean margin showing between the pocket's edge and the line of dirt that had distinguished the initialed fold on view there now for some weeks.

And as though calculating the effect, Hyde stepped from the window and reduced the figure behind the desk to the less pungent

proportions of natural lighting. —The Foundation is committed up to its, it's deeply committed. They've sunk seventy or eighty million into this school tv project nationwide and they're not pulling out and leaving setups like this one holding the bag. The point like I've been saying from the start is that in-school tv, to be in-school tv, it has to be in-school tv with lessons piped into school receivers in school classrooms for school kids in school classes, a simple interference-free closed-circuit school setup where every Tom Dick and Harry can't tune in on the kind of open-circuit broadcast you've got now and write letters telling you off on the new math.

—Educationwise it isn't hurting us PRwise, I'll say that, Miss Flesch said it, and mashed out her cigarette.

—Now the Senator here, Assembleyman Pecci that is, he has a bill

he's introducing that makes all this mandratory, it will get this in-school television out of the community entertainment field and back into the school, and the only squawk we'll get from the Foundation is because they stuck you with this whole open-circuit setup in the first place.

—I don't get mail telling me off … Miss Flesch threatened with a buttered thumb. —I get all this mail…

—She gets all this fan mail.

—All this fan mail you could call it even, she pursued from the desk top to Mister Pecci who seemed, just then, to realize that from where he sat he might appear to be looking up her skirt, and lowered his eyes to adjust a gold tieclasp representing an unfurled American flag to match his cufflinks. —Not just mail from kids' parents but from shut- ins, jobless, old retired people and everybody like just last week I got this letter of commendation from the Senior Citizens, you need popular support to run a school system and you don't get that without the support of the community look at this budget vote coming up and all that bla bla bla, they want to see where their money goes. I got nothing to hide, she came on, and pinioned a passing eye with the barest movement urging —my Ring, you take my Ring…

—We take her Ring, Pecci responded to this invitation, and then raised his eyes to the others, —there might even be some way to tie it into the cultural, something cultural?

—Let's give Pecci here an A for breakthrough. Tie it in with this Culture Center, locating it here, bring in your Spring Arts Festival expanded with a few remote specials stressing the patriotic theme, you might even do one on my shelter, what America's all about, waste disposal and all, and wrap it all up with the whole in-school television program once that's on a good interference-free closed-circuit system bring in a little Foundation backing and you're on your way.

—Once we have their confidence…

—Now whether or not a campaign…

—I think nationally…

—PRwise…