■The objectives and benefits of community colleges, and the value of television in education were discussed at the recent annual meeting of the Section V Massachusetts Association of School Committees. Organizers showed a taped session of a class conducted at Williamsburg High School, which the teacher used to evaluate his own teaching techniques and the reactions of the students to those techniques.
■Abigail Van Buren (“Dear Abby”) is a housewife and mother who writes the most widely read human relations newspaper column in the world, and it will begin in the Gazette next week. Tiny and attractive, direct and forthright in manner, wise and witty in her comments, Abby has become a household word in this country and elsewhere.
■James M. Dostal, who has worked for the city for 41 years, was looking forward to offering a broad perspective on his hometown from a seat on the City Council. The city solicitor’s office, however, has informed Dostal that he cannot work for the city and sit on the council at the same time.
■It’s back to the drawing board for city and Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School officials seeking to strengthen the school’s financial position by legally establishing it as a regional school. A bid to give the city-run school regional status without going through a full regionalization process foundered in the Legislature this week.
■Pulaski Park is looking a little brighter these days after a crew from the city’s Central Services department gave its shabbiest area some much-needed attention. Gone are unanchored benches at the shady rear of the park, holes in the ground and strewn tree branches and rubble left over from a city-sponsored construction project.
■In a shift from long tradition, Smith College will cut the positions of chaplains representing the Jewish, Catholic and Protestant faiths at the end of the month. The change is part of a larger reorganization of the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life that is spurred by cost reductions being made throughout the college.