Protests Postpone School Merger Plan

A drastic plan to merge nearly half of the city’s 15 elementary schools was withdrawn last night after a week of protest from hundreds of Cambridge residents.

The plan, proposed last week by school committee member Alan C. Price, who withdrew the plan himself, was a response to a series of merger proposals put forth by Superintendent of Schools Bobbie J. D’Alessandro to combat declining enrollment and a budget deficit of $3.6 million across the system.

The school committee decided last night to postpone action on D’Alessandro’s current plan, which was supposed to be voted on yesterday, until mid-December in order for her to revise her plan with increased input from school communities.

D’Alessandro’s proposal calls for the merging of the Kennedy and Longfellow schools in the Kennedy School building and the move of the popular Amigos bilingual program to the Longfellow building.

Last night’s meeting opened with nearly an hour of public comment, during which elementary school parents expressed concern over both Price’s and D’Alessandro’s last-minute plans and over what they labeled faulty communication between administrators and the public.

City Councillor Anthony D. Galluccio, who served on the school committee as mayor during the 2000-2001 term, said he did not approve of Price’s and others’ attempts to propose alternate plans to D’Alessandro’s.

“Somehow they have self-empowered themselves as superintendent,” he said. “What has occurred here to me has been a mistake.”

Many parents criticized a process that may leave students’ school placements for next year up in the air.

“This is a horrible process,” said parent Dennis Friedler. “My daughter is having trouble sleeping. My wife is having trouble sleeping.”

Parents also protested the topsy-turvy manner in which several installments of plans have been brought to the public, as administrators pitched new proposals in response to public criticism.

“In this situation, which of the processes was I supposed to trust?” said parent Cheryl Kennedy. “Why can’t you all sit down and collaborate?”

Parent Andy Hammond, who circulated a petition that called for inspection of the proceedings of the school committee by an outside body, pointedly accused D’Alessandro of bungling the merger process.

“I don’t have any confidence in your ability to lead this district,” he said. “I would vote that you move on to another career option.”

But D’Alessandro later defended herself and the committee, saying that “this is a process that no one has had the courage to deal with in 10 years.”

Several parents said that the process was so demoralizing that they considered taking their children out of Cambridge’s public schools and enrolling them in private education—a main factor in the school system’s sharp decline in enrollment over the last decade.

“It makes me feel that we have to start looking at private school,” said parent Elizabeth Gibb.

When public comment finally gave way to discussion of the committee’s agenda, committee member Alice L. Turkel said she too had been demoralized, and questioned her children’s enrollment in the system.

“It shook my own personal confidence in our schools,” she said.

With his plan all but doomed, Price withdrew the measure. Committee member Alfred B. Fantini then proposed postponing a vote on D’Alessandro’s plan and engaging the community in the revision process.

Some committee members, however, said they thought the committee should put off any merger plans until next year and simply focus on improving education instead.

“I don’t know how we get to the end, but there has to be an end and it has to be about closing the achievement gap and improving teaching and learning across the system,” said Mayor Michael A. Sullivan.

But other members reinforced the need to address the budget deficit and confirm plans before parents enroll their children in elementary schools next fall.

“We have to have had a plan yesterday,” said Director of the Cambridge Family Resource Center Lenore Prueser, who said a decision on mergers would have to be made by December to allow parents to make informed decisions on school kindergarten placements for next year.

The final vote to extend the merger timeline and the committee’s pledge to focus on school input relieved committee members.

“I felt like there was a guillotine over our heads,” Fantini said. “The pressure had to be released.”

But committee members also acknowledged the need to mend a larger problem–their repeated inability to work together. They said yesterday they have decided to hire “coaches” to help them solve disputes.

“When we work like this, it destroys moral and productivity,” Price said.

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