Eai

IN SOUTHWEST Baltimore, there's a one-room storefront school whose program is aimed at chronic truants and teen-agers in danger of failing.It's a public school run by Ombudsman Educational Services, a for-profit Illinois company operating in nine states and about to expand in Baltimore to two new sites on St. Paul and Cathedral streets."

The No. 2 executive of Education Alternatives Inc. has resigned, just as the Minnesota company that manages nine Baltimore public schools is struggling to sort out its future.William F. Goins, EAI's $300,000-a-year chief operating officer, tendered his "voluntary resignation" effective Nov. 30, the company announced yesterday."Bill did a lot of good things for the company," said Chris Bauer, an EAI spokeswoman. "We learned a lot from him, and we wish him the best as he moves on."Mr. Goins told Bloomberg News Service that he had differences over leadership style and vision with John T. Golle, the company's founder, chairman and chief executive officer.

Education Alternatives Inc., the company managing nine Baltimore public schools, faces two crucial dates this week and next that could determine the future of the company -- and of the privatization experiment.EAI is scheduled to respond Thursday to Baltimore's demand for a $10 million reduction in this year's payment -- nearly 25 percent of the estimated $44 million contract.Five days later, voters in Hartford, Conn., the only other city where EAI manages public schools, will elect five members of a nine-member school board.

Mention the city schools' contract with Education Alternatives Inc. and Councilman Carl Stokes can't help himself. He's goes right into bashing mode.For a year, the 2nd District councilman tirelessly preached that EAI, a private company that runs nine city schools and consults on three others, wouldn't be effective. He's said it so often that when one thinks of Carl Stokes, one thinks of EAI.But now that he's running for City Council president, Mr. Stokes is trying to distance himself from his constant criticism of the Minnesota-based company.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's decision to keep Education Alternatives Inc. in Baltimore for another year was the correct one from a logistical viewpoint. You cannot terminate a program of this size just weeks before the start of a new school year.The program deserves at least another year to prove, or disprove, the wisdom of this particular privatization experiment in the city's public schools. An academic review of the Minnesota contractor's success at nine city schools showed a mixed bag of results.

Education Alternatives Inc. will continue to negotiate a new contract to manage nine Baltimore public schools, company spokeswoman Lory Sutton said yesterday.EAI officials will meet soon with school Superintendent Walter G. Amprey and city finance officers to "put the fine tuning on the funding as well as the performance standards," Ms. Sutton said.On Monday, the city invited EAI to continue working toward TC modified contract, basing the decision on an independent evaluation of seven of the EAI-managed schools and improved student test scores.

Baltimore's privately managed public schools show little difference from comparable city-run schools on test results, attendance, parent involvement -- or even cleanliness, an evaluation released yesterday found.The report, prepared by the Center for Educational Research at University of Maryland Baltimore County, represents the first outside evaluation of the closely watched Education Alternatives Inc. experiment.While reporting few positive results in achievement, the report said, "Change takes time and there has been an investment in the first three years that can be recouped by continuation."

The preliminary findings of a long-awaited evaluation of Educational Alternatives Inc. as well as test scores for city school students are in the hands of Baltimore's mayor, school officials and EAI, but the details are being closely guarded.Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke repeatedly has pledged to use the data this summer to decide the fate of the school privatization experiment."I don't want to comment on their recommendations," he said yesterday. "This is truly a draft, and I would normally not release a draft.

Baltimore and Education Alternatives Inc. officials began contract renegotiations last week with a meeting to outline key ,, concerns.The topics omitted are as interesting as those agreed upon as negotiating points: Improved curriculum and increased control over staff, which EAI managers frequently have stated as issues, will not be the focus of the discussions.Instead, the city will seek during the next three weeks to tie the company's profits to student achievement. Also, changes will be sought in the formula used to determine EAI's cut of the total school budget, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke said last week.

Education Alternatives Inc. will receive about $8.5 million more in city money to manage a dozen schools in 1995-1996 than the city ordinarily would have spent, school budget officials said yesterday.The revelation, at a City Council hearing on the for-profit company's work here, drew criticism from some council members, who complained that the privatization venture diverts millions from other poor schools but has yet to produce academic gains."Everything I've seen says this has cost us millions of dollars more than we were spending on these schools," said Carl Stokes, chairman of the Education and Human Resources Committee.