Committee Begins Deliberations on Desegregation

The Cambridge School Committee last week released the third and final phase of its plan to desegregate and integrate the city's public schools, intended to provide for permanent racial balance within the system.

The plan will be presented to the public at the committee's regular meeting tonight before it goes to the state board of education for final approval.

Phase III deals with, among other things, developing a long-range pupil assignment policy and racially balancing the Kennedy and Roberts schools, two issues left unresolved by the second phase of the plan but essential to its ultimate success.

The plan also directs that "even in the face of fiscal constraints" no department or program can employ fewer qualified minority staff than they now have.

According to the city Office of Desegregation's plan, children will be assigned to schools according to a ten-step plan that takes into account parental preference, insures a degree of stability once assignment has been made and still provides a means for continued racial balance without continued juggling of pupil assignments.

The long-range pupil assignment plan assigns students who are new to the system by taking into account the amount of space available in the school a student chooses.

The plan also balances the Kennedy and Roberts Schools by reshuffling the two schools, placing kindergarten through third grade's from both schools in the Roberts School building and grades four through eight in the Kennedy School building.

Proposition 2 1/2, according to the Office of Desegregation's introduction to the proposed plan, may do "devastating damage" to potential improvements in the quality of education in Cambridge that could result from the plan.

An official in the Office of Desegregation, Dorothy S. Jones, said that while 2 1/2 will not impede the physical process of desegregation, it will hurt programs that are designed to carry out integration.

The plan also directs the school committee to look to private foundations for additional funds. Jones said that in the past private foundations granted money to public schools for pilot programs she said may be necessary in light of 2 1/2.

The president of the Cambridge Teachers Association, Roland E. Lachance, said yesterday that if any teachers are laid off for reasons not specifically mentioned in the teachers contract the union would take action against the school committee--either through collective bargaining or in the courts.

The principal of the Kennedy School, Mary T. Moroz, said yesterday that while she had not seen the plan, she knew of the plans for Roberts and Kennedy. She said she was sure that the children would adopt to the change in time but that some of the parents she had talked to "were not thrilled" about the proposed split. She refused to comment further until the plan had been presented to the parents at the committee's regular meeting.

Cambridge Mayor Francis H. Duchay '55 said Sunday that he thought there would be no problem in winning state approval for any plan passed by the committee.