Council Criticizes School Mergers

City councillors last night criticized a proposal to merge three elementary schools, saying it failed to address racial and socioeconomic inequities and would be too disruptive to students.

In one of the council’s occasional joint meetings with the Cambridge School Committee, members of both boards said they feared the consolidation plan would reduce already dwindling confidence in the city’s schools.

“It seems as if we’ve been having one crisis after another in the school department which is eroding confidence in our school system,” said councillor David P. Maher.

Officials agreed that the solution should be to even out discrepancies in the school system and improve education across the city. But amid weeks of parental protest against the plan, unveiled earlier this month by Superintendent of Schools Bobbie J. D’Alessandro, they did not agree on whether mergers would fix the inequities.

Councillors and school committee members alike attacked the plan—both for not going far enough in addressing inequity in the school system and for going too far and making radical changes in one fell swoop.

The proposal—which would close the Longfellow School and merge it with the Amigos bilingual program and the King School—comes in response to declining elementary school enrollment across the city and a growing budget deficit.

D’Alessandro has maintained that her plan would see savings “immediately,” about $1 million next year alone.

City Manager Robert W. Healy told school committee members last night to “roll up your sleeves” and demanded that they make up the $1.7 million deficit in the schools budget.

But despite the projected savings, some city councillors said they thought the plan didn’t save enough to justify shuffling students between schools.

“Considering the upheaval, where are the savings?” said councillor Marjorie C. Decker.

“For me, this plan is not about dollars,” said Mayor Michael A. Sullivan. “Kids are missed in this system.”

City officials also expressed concern that the merger would hurt the popular Amigos program, which recently petitioned to become its own school with its own building.

“The Amigos program is a high performing school that is going to be altered,” Decker said.

In addition to the merger issue, which the school committee is expected to vote on next month, city officials last night confronted other looming education issues—especially MCAS.

City officials said they worry too many students in Cambridge’s high school are failing the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, which will be a graduation requirement for this year’s seniors. Cambridge Rindge and Latin School Assistant Principal Caroline Hunter said 192 seniors still have to pass the test.

“Why is that number so high and what are we going to do to get that number reduced?” said committee member Joseph G. Grassi.

D’Alessandro said she would lobby the state to reduce attendance requirements for students who waive failing MCAS scores and graduate based on other criteria.

—Staff writer Claire A. Pasternack can be reached at cpastern@fas.harvard.edu.