Bok Did Not Join Presidents Endorsing Boston School Supt.

One week before the reappointment of Boston school superintendent Robert R. Spillane is slated to come to a vote, the presidents of 17 area colleges involved with the Boston public school system have sent the Boston school committee a letter supporting Spillane and urging them to renew his contract.

President Bok is a member of the group but did not sign the letter--probably because he was out of town and never saw it. John R. Silber, president of Boston University said yesterday. Bok declined to comment yesterday.

The letter said that Spillane's reappointment was crucial to creating stability within the school system--there have been six different superintendents since 1974 and affirmed Spillane's commitment to full integration of public schools John O'Bryant, a Black member of the school committee recently charged Spillane with "racial insensitivity," but committee president Jean Sullivan McKergue said yesterday that she believed the accusations against Spillane stemmed from "misunderstandings."

The presidents who signed the letter represent colleges that are actively involved with city public schools as part of a plan to speed desegregation by improving "magnet schools" to draw students from all over the city. Silber, the chairman of the President's Steering Committee of the Boston Schools Consortium said that it was essential that the committee involve itself in the school system including such action as the Spillane endorsement. "We are involved, it's right that we be heard," Silber said.

MIT president Paul Gary--one of the committee members including Bok who did not sign the letter, felt that it would be inappropriate for a Cambridge university to speak out on an issue within the Boston school system. Walter L. Milne, Gray's special assistant, said yesterday. However, Gray would probably have signed if he felt the issue dealt directly with desegregation, Milne added.