Two New Independent Leaders for the Schools

When she takes her place on the Cambridge School Committee in January, Jane F. Sullivan will move to change the procedure for laying off teachers.

"The city has to take a serious look at the layoffs and cutbacks made under Proposition 2 1/2," she said yesterday. "I think they can be administered more fairly if we consider seniority."

Since last spring, the school committee has protected its disproportionately few minority teachers from layoffs. In a pending court case, the Cambridge Teachers Association is claiming that the policy violates union contracts and that the policy violates union contracts and that seniority should be the sole criterion.

The issue was one of the hottest of the campaign. Sullivan, an Indpendent, said that the CTA should determine a minimum quota of minority teachers. Under her plan, only seniority would count as long as the schools maintained the quota.

Sullivan opposes proposals to consolidate neighborhood schools and also the desegregation plan instituted by the Cambridge Civic Association, which presently commands a 5-2 majority of the committee.

"People move to a certain neighborhood so their children can attend a certain school," Sullivan said. "Children have a right to attend their neighborhood schools."

As a member of the committee, Sullivan said she will push to modernize the neighborhood schools, which are over 50 years old, because the present committee has not maintained them properly.

Sullivan's Campaign emphasized her experience as the manager of Briston Arms, a federally subsidized housing project in Cambridge. Her father, John Briston Sullivan, served on the School Committee from 1956-57.