As Crew will tell you, the biggest challenge facing most urban superintendents is simply attracting, and retaining, sufficient talent.

The average urban superintendent now lasts two years, as against five for the rest of the country.

In the next few weeks, state education authorities will start meeting with urban superintendents to select and plan for new educational programs for the 1991-92 school year.

The hero is Jefferson Smith (Sam Guncler), a nice guy from Omaha who has recently moved east to become an urban superintendent of schools.

But like other urban superintendents now uneasy about tax increases, Dr. Venable refused to criticize the new law.

These days, the average tenure of urban superintendents is about two years.

The average urban superintendent lasts just 2.75 years.

The short stints of urban superintendents make it difficult to tackle the many problems of inner-city schools with any continuity, education analysts say.

"Every school system in the country has unrealistic expectations for urban superintendents," said Susan Burgess, a board member with mixed views about Dr. Murphy's tenure.

The average life span of an urban superintendent is two and a half years.