School Committee Under Fire

When the Cambridge School Committee meets tonight, top school administrators' jobs will be on the line--and so will the reputation of a body that prided itself last year on achieving consensus but now faces deep divisons.

Last spring, the committee passed a major curriculum restructuring of Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS) and a merger plan for two elementary schools. Both votes were unanimous and members congratulated themselves on working out their differences.

The vote on CRLS created a system--for a year--that randomly placed incoming ninth-graders into the high school's five "small school" learning communities. In the past, parents were able to select a "small school" (each with distinct teaching styles) for their children.

Two weeks ago, ill will replaced praise on the school committee.

In a late-night vote last month, the school committee split four-three to oppose a proposal by district administrators to keep the school assignment process random.

Tonight, at the request of Mayor Anthony D. Galluccio, the committee will reconsider its decision that effectively supports parent choice in selecting their child's school at CRLS.

Since the vote, committee members who opposed the district administrators' proposal have faced a ferocious volley of criticism from parents who want to keep the selection process random at the high school.

CRLS Principal Paula M. Evans has said she will resign if the committee does not reconsider the vote tonight and reverse its decision.

And Superintendent of Schools Bobbie J. D'Alessandro has said she sees "serious differences" between herself and the committee.

Last night, on the eve of the school committee meeting, the Cambridge City Council joined the fray, passing a resolution urging the school committee not to "sacrifice" the high school redesign that Evans engineered last year.

"I'm very concerned that Wednesday morning, we may have no superintendent and no principal," said counsellor Timothy J. Toomey. "I will not be silent when I see my constituents getting shafted by school committee members."

'Dirty Deeds'

Entering tonight's meeting, no one--not committee members, not parents, not administrators--say they know how the vote will turn out. But talk of factions and town politics have deepened the divide within the committee over the past week.

Committee member Alfred B. Fantini, who joined Joseph G. Grassi and Galluccio in supporting the administration's proposal to keep the school selection process random, said parental choice at CRLS is a decision for Evans and D'Alessandro to make, not a policy question for the school committee to question.

"Policy is being used as a cover to do their dirty deeds," Fantini said.

Fantini said he thinks the school committee is using his issue to undermine decisions of the highschool administrators.

Fantini called the vote "a clear vote of no-confidence to the superintendent and to the principal and the leadership team of the high school."

But the four committee members who opposed the proposal (and want to let parents select their child's school at CRLS)--Susana M. Segat, E. Denise Simmons, Alice L. Turkel and Nancy Walser--have stood by their decision.

Walser said the reasons for her vote have been "misconstrued." She said she wants to ensure that, eventually, parents can choose between "small schools" at CRLS that operate under fundamentally different teaching philosophies.

Under the current plan, all the CRLS schools are structured in the same way.

Walser said the proposal administrators offered two weeks ago failed to spell out a clear plan for how the small schools would develop and she said converstations with Evans and D'Alessandro last week did not resolve her questions.

"I can't get clarification on where we're going. I have to guess," she said. "I want to get some clarity. I don't think that's unreasonable. I don't think that's political."

Forming Factions

In last week's meeting, a new and consistent split emerged in the committee. After one unanimous vote on relocating an elementary school, the committee split four-three on school choice at CRLS and also split along the same four-three lines on two other key votes on a bilingual program and on an elementary school merger.

That consistent split led Fantini to call the vote two weeks ago a "political" one and to condemn Segat, Simmons, Turkel and Walser for their "divisive posture."

"They have carved out an agenda. They are clearly making a power play." he said. "They turned on us. That was a terrible thing to do."

Though he said he was unsure how the CRLS choice vote would come out tonight, Grassi suggested this could become a major issue in school committee elections this fall.