For much of the last century, the superpower status of the US was in part based on the ability to fight multiple wars at one time.

There are similar expectations for the next permanent superintendent of city schools.

The next superintendent will have to manage the district's multiple crises but not use that as an excuse for getting little done. That was one of the characteristics many of the members of the superintendent search committee said was vitally important at a meeting earlier this week.

All I can say is, Easier said than done.

Hardly a day after the search committee's meeting, Interim Superintendent Bolgen Vargas saw his proposal for opening an alternative high school next year temporarily shelved.

Vargas says he is trying to address the crisis in the city high schools that are being phased out, where hundreds of students are at risk of not graduating.

He proposed opening a school that provides these students with an intervention program that includes longer instruction hours in a year-round setting.

But some parents, teachers, and education activists at last night's school board meeting said the administration had not included them in the decision to phase out the schools or open the new alternative high school.

In a tense exchange with school board President Malik Evans, NAACP President Edward Goolsby warned board members not to vote in favor of opening the school.

Critics of the school were also concerned that it would resemble the former Josh Lofton High School. That alternative school was closed several years ago due to low performance.

The fears and objections to Vargas's proposal are an overreaction, Adam Urbanski said in a phone interview.

"This is a lifeboat," he said. "This is an opportunity for students who have already fallen through the cracks. Don't abort the opportunity."

Vargas said after the meeting that he'll revise the plan for the alternative school. If history is any indication, resistance won't go away. And it's hard to say how much support he'll get from the school board.

Fighting wars on multiple fronts has become the Rochester superintendent's job. Eking higher student achievement out of the district is nearly impossible.

And finding a superpower superintendent is going to be just as challenging as being one.