CPS Will Increase Staffing At Schools Receiving Kennedy-Longfellow Students

Cambridge Public School officials plan to increase the number of teachers and paraprofessionals at the King Open and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. elementary schools to account for the influx of students from the recently closed Kennedy-Longfellow School.

Two months after the December vote to close the school, students and families at K-Lo received their placements for the 25-26 school year. Over 85 percent of the 215 K-Lo students will move to King Open and MLK after the school’s closure, and the remainder have been placed into another school via lottery.

“The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. School and the King Open School are expected to have the greatest number of students from the Kennedy-Longfellow,” Ivy Washington, CPS Chief Financial Officer, said at a Wednesday special budget meeting. “Correspondingly, there are a number of staff that are being redeployed there.”

According to Washington, the King Open School will receive two additional teachers and four paraprofessionals to support the influx of K-Lo first and second graders. MLK will also receive three teachers and two paraprofessionals for the incoming K-Lo third, fourth, and fifth graders.

Interim Superintendent David G. Murphy said that this reallocation ensures “continuity for those students, and also recognizing that as we change enrollment numbers in schools, there’s a need for that to be reflected in staffing structures.”

K-Lo was also home to one of two elementary Sheltered English Immersion programs in the district, designed to teach students English and prepare them for general education classes. The program currently employs seven teachers, seven paraprofessionals and one Sheltered English Immersion interventionist. The district currently projects that the full program will be transferred to the Tobin Montessori school next year.

“The teams at the King and the King Open, as well as at the Tobin in the continuity of the SEI program that will be represented there, are eager and enthusiastic to welcome those students and to welcome those families into their school communities,” Murphy said.

Murphy also confirmed that any elementary school in the district with more than 350 students will receive one additional paraprofessional.

Throughout the meeting, Murphy emphasized the importance of increasing family engagement within the district when making budget allocations, and said it is “the formula by which we will better serve students.”

“We have to recognize that in the access to partnerships with families, we can buy the best curriculum in the world, we can hire the best teachers in the world — if that relationship is not strengthened, these gaps are not going to close,” Murphy said.

He said that the development of the budget, which has included multiple meetings with students and families, has been an “inclusive process.”

“I am grateful for the contributions and for the dialog that we've had with the community, which I will continue in the coming weeks,” he added.

Murphy said that the district is “exceedingly fortunate” to have a nearly $300 million budget, but added that the investment comes with an obligation to increase student performance.

“It is also true, though, that as a school department with greater resources at our disposal, that we have an obligation to hold ourselves to a higher standard,” he said.

He added that the district will prioritize creating a budget that “will reflect a commitment to making good on those heightened standards and those and the responsibilities.”

School Committee member Richard Harding Jr. agreed, and said that the district has an obligation to support struggling schools using its “enormous resources.”

“We can do more with the resources, because we have a very, very small district,” he said.

Murphy acknowledged Harding’s concern, and said that the district’s performance is “not good enough based on the resources that we have.”

“It’s not because of lack of efforts, not because of lack of professionalism, but there are instances in which we do not execute as well as we kind of have students,” he said.

Murphy also reaffirmed the district’s commitment to providing students with high quality education despite recent changes in the federal government, noting that the budget is being developed in a “difficult political climate.”

“It’s being presented to you in a difficult historical period in our country, and it’s one that we feel a responsibility to reaffirm our core mission to serve the children and young adults of Cambridge,” Murphy said.

“If we're doing our job correctly, each and every single line item is serving that singular purpose — to inspire, acknowledge, empower, and support every student within the Cambridge Public Schools,” he added.

— Staff writer Ayaan Ahmad can be reached at ayaan.ahmad@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @AyaanAhmad2024.

— Staff writer Claire A. Michal can be reached at claire.michal@thecrimson.com.