Middlesex Judge Declines to Hear Frisoli Challenge

Cambridge Mayor Barbara Ackermann said yesterday that Monday's Middlesex Superior Court decision not to hear the legal challenge of ousted Cambridge Superintendent of Schools Frank J. Frisoli '35 does not affect the tenure issue in the case.

Judge Henry H. Chmielinski Jr. declined to accept jurisdiction Monday in Frisoli's attempt to reverse the Cambridge School Committee's decision not to renew his contract as superintendent last January. Chmielinski said that "Frisoli's right to continue as superintendent by virtue of tenure is exclusively in the jurisdiction of the Supreme Judicial Court."

A legal question has arisen as to whether the three years which are required for a superintendent's tenure includes the time spent as a teacher in the school system. Ackermann said. Frisoli was formerly a teacher in Cambridge for 36 years, but was only superintendent for one year.

Frisoli was ousted on January 19 by the School Committee at a stormy meeting attended by about 2000 people. Committeeman David A. Wylie's resolution to terminate Frisoli's contract, which listed 29 charges against Frisoli, was passed by a 4-2-1 vote.

No Case

"It's been my positions that there wasn't a case all along because superintendents don't get tenure for three years." Ackermann said yesterday. Alflorence Cheatham was named in June to succeed Frisoil to the $38,000 a year position.

"For the past three months the whole school department has been proceeding under the assumption that Cheatham is the superintendent of Schools," Ackermann said.

Former City Councillor Alfred E. Vellucct, who voted against Frisoli's ouster, said yesterday that Frisoli contends that his 36 years in the Cambridge school system give him tenure in any position with the school system. Frisoli was unavailable for comment yesterday