The game: 26 candidates running for six seats on the Cambridge School Committee. The players: mostly male, mostly young, mostly political new-comers--the largest field in many years. At stake: the school superintendency and control of the multi-million dollar school budget.

For many years a quiet, low-profile body, the school committee has had a turbulent history in recent times. The superintendent of schools is the man with all the power in the Cambridge School Department. When that position became vacant in 1970, a nation-wide search began to find the man most qualified to fill the spot.

The search was halted before citizens groups had a chance to interview the top candidates, and Frank J. Frisoli '35, the acting superintendent who had been in the Cambridge school system for over thirty years, became the new superintendent.

The liberal Cambridge Civic Association (CCA) based its 1971 campaign on a pledge to fire Frisoli and reopen the nation-wide search for a new superintendent. The CCA won a majority on the school board, and after extensive citizen interviews of prospective superintendents, Alflorence Cheatham replaced Frisoli last fall.

It is not surprising, therefore, that Cheatham himself is the chief issue in this fall's campaign. Frisoli has many supporters among lower-middle class Cantabridgians, and many of them have gotten together to form an "Independent Slate" of school committee candidates.

While the Independents have not openly called for Cheatham's removal, they have been extremely critical of many of his policies. A majority of Cheatham's appointees have been from outside the city (Cheatham himself was an assistant cuperintendent in Chicago before coming to Cambridge). The Independents assert that there are more than enough qualified Cambridge residents to fill all positions in the school department.

Racial fears are also evident in this fall's campaign. Cheatham is black, as is the new headmaster at Cambridge's