In 1981, the Cambridge Teachers' Union filed a suit against the school committee for "violations of collective bargaining." The committee, the union charged, was exempting minority teachers from the system-wide proposed layoffs due to the tight budget constraints imposed by Proposition 2 1/2.

In the out-of-court settlement, the committee promised to make a "good faith effort" to reach the goal of 25 percent minority teachers and administrators in the system, says union official Roger O'Sullivan.

Meanwhile, Cambridge currently faces three empty principal's offices and vacancies in five other administrative positions, in addition to the post at the top. Cooper says she hopes at least some of those spots will go to minority candidates, and Tabor adds that a complex system devised last year governs the hiring of principals, and will ensure "that the system recruits a good pool of qualify of minority candidates."

Another recent development is the idea of "multi-cultural curriculum" currently gaining momentum in the schools. School administrators say Cambridge's diverse ethnic population of Hartians. Greeks and Portugese as well as Blacks necessitates an education reflecting the city's make-up.

Another major accomplishment of Lannon's tenure was an extensive reorganization of the city's high school. After combining the students and faculty at the Rindge School and Latin School into a newly-constructed building on Broadway. Lannon started a series of programs to break the large student body, which comes from all 13 elementary schools, into smaller individual groups.

The 2656 students in grades eight through 12 are randomly assigned to one of four "houses," each with its own headmaster. During the first year in the school, students take most of their classes with others in their "house," and the four groups compete in intramural athletics and academic contests.

In addition, the high school sports a number of alternative programs for students of all abilities, from the highly motivated to those who need extra help.

The Pilot School, started in 1969 in conjunction with Harvard, provides a loose framework with which students can create their own educational programs. "The Pilot School is one of the few open-classroom programs started in the '60s that is still functioning," says Giroux.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Fundamental School gives about 400 students a program stressing the basics--reading, writing, speaking.

Two alternative programs emphasize career preparation. The Occupational Education Program gives students a vocational training curriculum to addition to academics. Students in this program take regular classes in the morning, and spend their afternoons working at a trade. The Enterprise Cooperative, another alternative, stresses business preparation.

"The high school course catalogue is more diverse than some colleges," Leib says, adding." Now we just need to strengthen the requirement and the academics."

School Committee member Jane Sullivan also criticizes the academic program. "We need to use more testing to monitor our students, because some are moving along even though they are not academically prepared," Sullivan says. Several committee members add that the emphasis on the high school in recent years has caused the elementary programs to suffer.

Tabor admits that the elementary programs need attention "in terms of scope and sequence." Tabor adds that school officials are considering several approaches to attacking the problem. "We need some solid lone range planning," she says, remarking. "We can't operate on a crists mentality."

One possible resource for the schools, which has remained virtually untapped up to now, is the institutions of higher learning so prevalent in the Cambridge community Schools officials say, how ever, that the university have been less than enthusiastic about helping out their younger siblings. "It's hard to judge the overall picture, because when they're forced they come through, but they have not been particulars forthcoming," says Leib.

Cantabrigians derive some benefit from having institutions such as Harvard and MIT in their midst, if only because the children of professors and graduate students attend the public schools. Although Leib points out that this increases the transient nature of the student body and puts a strain on the schools, most school committee members cite the benefits of having academically oriented and diverse students in the system.