The future is looking increasingly bright for Cambridge’s superintendent of schools, Thomas D. Fowler-Finn.

If the past is any guide, the School Committee elected by Cambridge voters two weeks ago is likely rehire Fowler-Finn, who has run the Cambridge Public Schools since 2003 and is seeking a contract extension for beyond August 2008.

The renewal of Fowler-Finn’s contract will likely be the most heated issue facing the new School Committee, which will take office this January and have until the end of the month to decide whether he stays or goes.

During Fowler-Finn’s four years in office, he has been praised for his skills in raising test scores, particularly a 20-percent increase in English scores and 19-point jump in math scores at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School from 2005 to 2006.

But despite these achievements, the superintendent has never received high marks for his leadership style. Committee member-elect Marc C. McGovern has criticized him for being “autocratic,” and sophomore member Luc D. Schuster has called him “uninspiring.”

The last time the School Committee reconsidered his contract, in August 2006, it voted four to three to keep him on board.

At the time, veteran members Alfred B. Fantini, Joseph G. Grassi, and Nancy Walser joined with freshman member Schuster in supporting Fowler-Finn, while Patricia M. Nolan ’80 and Richard N. Harding Jr. united with Cambridge Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves ’72 in opposing him.

The mayor, who is chosen by the City Council from among its own members, serves as chair of the School Committee.

In the 2007 election cycle, Walser—a strong supporter of the superintendent—retired, leaving McGovern, a former committee member, well-positioned to win her seat.

Had McGovern won Walser’s seat, the groups supporting and opposing Fowler-Finn would have each had three members.

McGovern has criticized Fowler-Finn, saying that he is not “a superintendent that students and teachers flock to.” And during the debate over the contract in the summer of 2006, McGovern publicly opposed keeping Fowler-Finn on board.

But the McGovern-Walser switch did not happen. McGovern did win a seat, but his victory was balanced by the loss of Harding, a fellow Fowler-Finn critic. Walser was replaced by one of her allies, schoolteacher Nancy Tauber, who is likely to back the superintendent.

As a result, the anti-Fowler-Finn block now has two members—McGovern and Nolan—while the side backing him has three—Fantini, Grassi, and Tauber.

The only circumstance under which Fowler-Finn would be defeated is if the next mayor opposes Fowler-Finn like Reeves did, and Schuster, who is viewed as the swing vote, decides to oppose him.

A new mayor will be selected in January when the new City Council is sworn in, and it is not yet clear who the next mayor will be.

School politics rarely influence the choosing of a mayor, according to former School Committee member Glenn S. Koocher ’71, a frequent commentator on Cambridge politics.

As for Schuster, the youngest member of the committee, it is anybody’s guess where he will come down.

Last time around, he voted against renewing Fowler-Finn’s contract when the School Committee met behind closed doors, but then switched his vote and supported Fowler-Finn when the final, public vote was cast.

Schuster’s public comments this year have provided little guidance on where he stands.

“[The superintendent] has brought some important order and systems to the Cambridge Public Schools,” Schuster wrote in a statement. “On the other hand, I find Dr. Fowler-Finn to be an uninspiring leader who has a much narrower vision of public education than I do.”

While noting that there are “substantial pros and cons related to offering the superintendent a new contract,” Schuster said that he would mostly base his vote on whether he thought Cambridge could find a better superintendent.

And on that issue, too, the committee is divided.

Fowler-Finn’s critics say that leading the Cambridge schools is a "dream job" because the city pays its superintendent over $180,000, more than almost any other school district in the Commonwealth, and the district's extraordinary level of per-pupil spending, $23,300, gives the superintendent unparalleled financial freedom.

But supporters of the current administration point to Boston’s acrimonious search for a superintendent after its longtime schools chief stepped down in 2006. It took the Boston School Committee 18 months to find a replacement.

—Staff writer Paras D. Bhayani can be reached at pbhayani@fas.harvard.edu.