Features

BUSD Extends Superintendent’s Contract 

The Berkeley Board of Education extended the contract of Superintendent Michele Lawrence through June 2006, district officials announced Monday. 

Lawrence has received high marks from board members in steering the district through a tumultuous three years of budget cuts totaling about $14 million. 

Lawrence replaced longtime Superintendent Jack McLaughlin in 2001 just as the district plunged into a fiscal crisis that threatened local control. She has focused on repairing the district’s creaky data systems and centralizing decision making to achieve uniform policies throughout schools. 

District spokesperson Mark Coplan said the extension does not include a raise. Lawrence, whose contract was set to expire next June, makes $185,000 per year and received an interest-free $300,000 home loan upon taking the job. 

University Celebrates Inaugural Disability Awareness Week 

Sproul Plaza will be converted into a basketball court for a wheelchair basketball game Wednesday as part of UC Berkeley’s inaugural Disability Awareness Week. 

Activities, sponsored by the student government, president’s office and Disabled Students Program, started Monday and will continue through Wednesday. 

Tuesday’s events include an HIV information panel hosted by the Gender Equity Resource Center in 202 Chavez Hall at 12 p.m. and a charity fashion show at 7 p.m. at Pauley Ballroom in the student union. 

In addition to the basketball game Wednesday at 12 p.m., Greg Wollcoh, an actor and comedian, will perform at the Tilden Room on the fifth floor of the student union. 

On Monday, Chancellor Robert Berdahl and several other UC administrators spent the day in a wheelchair in order to, according to an Associated Students of UC spokesperson, “learn more about what life in a wheelchair entails.”