Angry Parents Rekindle School Chief Controversy

Armed with placards and resolve, an angry group of local parents and their children stalked through the Cambridge City Council chambers last night to protest the School Committee's decision not to rehire the school system's highest administrator.

In a four-to-three decision last Tuesday night, the school committee voted not to renew Superintendent William C. Lannon's contract when it expires in August.

Committee Member Glenn S. Koocher '71 accused Lannon of political patronage, favoritism in administrative appointments, and subverting committee policy.

Cambridge parents supporting Lannon attended last evening's council meeting "to give guidance of the school committee and the mayor" in regard to the upcoming reconsideration vote, said Katherine Austrotus, one of the parents present.

Mayor Leonard J. Russell presides over both the city council and the school committee.

The council last night approved a resolution calling the mayor to appoint three of their number to confer with the school committee about drawing up a plan which would extend the superintendent's contract, possibly until January 1, 1985.

In other business, the council passed a non-binding resolution placing a 90-day moratorium on all testing of nerve gas and blistering agents within city limits. City officials have expressed concern over such testing getting out of hand ever since last fall, when the Arthur D. Little Company opened its laboratories to experiment with toxic chemicals.