Frisoli Vows to Keep Fighting Ouster as City Superintendent

Ousted Cambridge Superintendent of Schools Frank J. Frisoli '35, said yesterday that he would "keep fighting to the very end" for his right to continue as superintendent by virtue of tenure.

Frisoli said that Monday's decision not to rule on the case by Middlesex Superior Court Judge Henry H. Chmielinski Jr. was not a defeat, "By no means was this a setback. It just means that the case will be heard in the state Supreme Court," he said.

On January 19, the Cambridge School Committee voted not to renew Frisoli's year-old contract as superintendent. The controversial action divided the city into pro and anti-Frisoli forces and touched off student demonstrations in several schools. In June, Alflorence Cheatham was named to replace Frisoli to the $38,000 a year position.

Cambridge Mayor Barbara Ackermann and attorneys for the city contend that even though Frisoli had tenure as a teacher and could not be fired from the system, he did not have the three years service required for tenure as superintendent and thus could be reassigned to a different position.

Tenure

Frisoli charges that his 34 years of tenure as a teacher are applicable to the superintendents job.

"This is going to be a case of great import in school law." Frisoli said yesterday. He charged that the job of superintendent should not hinge on the political climate every two years when the new School Committee is elected. "The school system would just be mayhem if things see-sawed back and forth every two years; it takes time to initiate programs for the school?" he said.