Players and Games

largest high school, Cambridge High and Latin. While both have been generally well received, some poor whites feel threatened by what they see as the take-over of their school system.

By the 1975 election, Cheatham probably will have received tenure (granted by state law to all school personnel after three years in office), which would virtually guarantee him the superintendency for as long as he wanted it. If they win a majority on the School Committee, the Independents must fire Cheatham during the next two years or not at all.

Ironically, the balance of power on the School Committee probably will be determined by the outcome of the City Council race. The school board usually is evenly dividied three-three between CCA and Independent candidates, and the mayor casts the seventh and deciding vote. The mayor is elected by the City Council from among its own members.

Four of the incumbent School Committeemen--two CCA and two Independent--are running for re-election, and all should win easily.

Peter G. Gesell '61 won last time on the strength of his support in the upper-middle class liberal wards of West Cambridge. A professional educator (he works at the Fernald State School in Waltham), Gesell says he is interested in improving the School Department's budgeting and performance monitoring system.

The other CCA-backed incumbent, Charles M. Pierce, is the only black on the School Committee. Although Cambridge is only six per cent black, Pierce has the solid support of the black community, and that backing combined with his white liberal support should be sufficient for victory. Cambridge children have reading scores well below the national average (as do children in most urban areas), and Pierce says his top priority is to improve reading scores by beefing up remedial reading programs.

Independent Committeeman James F. Fitzgerald, a lawyer, has served on the School Committee for two decades. He is the most vociferous advocate of "Cambridge jobs for Cambridge residents," is very conservative fiscally, and vigorously defends his right to dispense patronage. Fitzgerald in recent years has slipped from his position as the top vote-getter in the City, but his solid backing in East Cambridge should be more than sufficient to re-elect him.

The fourth incumbent, Independent Joseph E. Maynard, represents his municipal employee constituency well. His chief concern is that School Department employees receive generous contracts, but he also enthusiastically supports "alternate education" programs in the City.

Of the remaining 22 candidates, all but five are on one of three slates: CCA-Common Slate, Independent, or Socialist Workers.

The Independent slate is a diverse group of 12 candidates whose only real similarities are a commitment to hiring and promoting Cambridge residents within the school system and a distrust of the CCA.

Robert Romagna '74, a life-long resident of East Cambridge, should pick up a sizeable Italian vote. He says he supports Cheatham, but he is critical of Cheatham's teaching and administrative appointments. "The new teachers have been mindless political cadres who spout the liberal CCA line," Romagna said last week.

Warren McManus is the Comptroller of the Cambridge Model Cities program, and he asserts that active community participation (which he feels has been very successful in Model Cities) is essential to improving the quality of Cambridge education. McManus says he is not opposed to the CCA but joined the Independent Slate as a means of getting elected.

A. George Catavolo is a well-known North Cambridge politician who has run for School Committee (and lost) several times. Catabolo says that the school budget should be cut drastically by improving management techniques, but he also says that the School Department should wipe out unem- ployment in Cambridge by hiring extra personnel.

Leo Johnson, also from North Cambridge, supports construction of a new elementary school in that area to relieve overcrowding. He lives in the Wasserman Towers on Rindge Ave.--a sizable base of support--but he is not well known in other areas.

Michael G. Sico Jr. has been campaigning on a platform consisting almost exclusively of a pledge to hire more Cambridge residents in the School Department. Sico has been active in youth recreation groups, and has a fair amount of support in the Strawberry Hill section of Cambridge.

Barbara Hickey, a mother of six school-age children, has one of the most politically well-known names in North Cambridge. She says that more attention should be paid to the grammar schools because they are in deplorable physical condition.

Joseph F. Thomas, the City's dog officer, has finished out of the money in each of the last three school committee races. He is unlikely to improve his finish, mainly because he must compete with Committeeman Fitzgerald for East Cambridge votes.

Roberto Garcia '75 says he bases his hopes for victory on the votes of Cambridge's fledgling Puerto Rican population; the small size of that group (under 3 per cent of Cambridge's population) and the large number of Puerto Ricans who are not registered to vote reduce Garcia's chances of winning. Garcia emphasizes the need to improve pupil reading scores and bilingual education programs.

Francis E. Murphy 3rd, a sophomore at MIT, is a life-long North Cambridge resident. Murphy says he would like to see the School Department replace funds cut off by the federal government for several local educational programs, including the Teens and Law program.

Olga C. Armstrong lives in the Jefferson Park housing project in North Cambridge, and is the only black candidate other than incumbent Pierce. She says the biggest problem confronting the school system is motivating students to attend classes, and advocates hiring more minority group teachers.

The Independents may have difficulty winning a third seat in addition to Fitzgerald and Maynard, primarily because none of their candidates from North Cambridge (an area which usually provides at least one Independent committeeman) are particularly well-known.

The CCA endorsed five candidates (at an open convention) other than incumbents Gesell and Pierce. (Two of these, Mary Ellen Preusser and Eric L. Davin, are examined in an accompanying article).

Alice K. Wolf, a former president of the Peabody School PTA, has called for equal educational opportunity for all students throughout the city. She stresses the need to revamp educational programs prior to investing $20 million in the soon-to-be-constructed Cambridge high schools, and she says that more community participation is needed in educational decision-making, in order to make schools responsive to community needs.

Orie L. Dudley Jr. '67, says that Cambridgeport (his area) has not received the educational facilities which exist in the rest of the city. The only candidate with a child in the Alternative Public School, he says he favors increasing the number of education options available to students. Dudley has strong backing in the Webster School area, where he is president of the PTA.

Timothy L. Callahan, a sophomore at UMass, says he hopes to relieve the frustration that he says many Cambridge students feel by hiring "exciting teachers" and by granting tenure to teachers only after they have been carefully examined by citizens groups.

Two candidates, Ruth Getts and Diana Travis, are running on the Socialist Workers slate. They support education controlled by students and teachers, and "a reoriented society which is run for the benefit of the majority.

Five candidates are running without the endorsement of any slate. Of these, Glenn S. Koocher '71 has the best chance of winning. Koocher finished ninth two years ago, drawing most of his support from mid-Cambridge. Koocher says that mid-Cambridge schools should be upgraded since they are inferior physically to those of the rest of the city. He supports Superintendent Cheatham and Cheatham's hiring policies "whole-heartedly."

W. Keith McCoy '76 sought but failed to receive CCA endorsement. "They didn't like the fact that I opposed tenure for superintendents," he said recently. In support of his view he argues that school committees should be able to re-evaluate superintendants continually and that administrators get stale if they stay in the same system for too long. McCoy says that high school students should be given a larger role in determining school policy.

Joseph L. Carson, who lives in Cambrideport, calls on Harvard and MIT to provide Cambridge residents with at least 25 full scholarships each. Carson has run twice for the school committee--the last time was in 1961. His career has included stints as a public school teacher and publisher of his own Cambridge weekly newspaper.

Charles H. Shuman Jr. says that after Watergate, America needs "dedicated politicians--and I'm dedicated." Shuman lives in East Cambridge and said last week, "I'm only running a marginal operation in this campaign."

Jonathon L. Olmstead lives in mid-Cambridge, has not campaigned actively, and has not made any public statements.

Many issues have been raised by candidates this fall; some certainly deserve careful consideration by next year's school committee. Yet, any policy matters which the school committee may consider are minor compared to its primary responsibility: choosing a superintendent. For it is the superintendent who selects the personnel and sets the tone of a school system. On Tuesday, the voters of Cambridge will determine whether Alflorence Cheatham will continue to set the tone of Cambridge's schools