December 22, 1995

A Catholic school closed early for the holidays after several classrooms were severely damaged yesterday in what the authorities said was arson. The police said someone broke into St. Joseph's School -- which was unoccupied at the time -- and stole a computer and possibly other equipment before setting a fire to a storage closet. "We're not sure if it's someone with a problem against the school," said Detective Joel Frederico. "We're looking at all avenues."

John W. Teets, chairman and chief executive of the Dial Corporation, has made a name as a cost-cutter so tough that labor-union workers hanged him in effigy during his decade-long overhaul of the conglomerate. From 1983, when he won money-saving concessions from transit-union workers after a seven-week strike at the company's Greyhound line, through three months ago, when he moved to close six consumer-products plants and eliminate 700 jobs, Mr. Teets has built a reputation as a man with an iron grip on company costs. He has even set up an "asset protection program" to make sure that expenses are not padded by improper employee use of company resources.

Still bleeding from its acquisition last year of Snapple, the Quaker Oats Company warned Wall Street today that earnings in the quarter ending Dec. 31 would fall short of expectations. Quaker also announced plans for a $40 million pretax charge against earnings in the quarter, mostly to cover the cost of getting rid of overcapacity in Snapple's bottling operations.

Reversing his own ruling, the judge who will preside over the trial of a man accused of killing 7-year-old Megan Kanka decided yesterday that the case could be heard in Trenton, as long as the jurors live elsewhere.

The Annenberg Foundation is planning a $36 million, five-year program to revitalize arts education in New York City's public schools. The plan would establish a new model for arts education in a school system that for a generation has increasingly neglected music, dance, art and drama. The plan, according to its developers, would make arts education a systematic part of the curriculum from kindergarten through high school by creating a network of partnerships between individual schools and arts organizations. Supervising the classroom lessons would be a new agency, the Center for Arts Education, administratively distinct from the Board of Education.