CPS Announces 3 Finalists in Superintendent Search, Including Current Interim Superintendent

Cambridge Public Schools announced three finalists in its search for a permanent superintendent on Monday, including current interim superintendent David G. Murphy and two experienced administrators from other Massachusetts public school districts.

The two external candidates are Lourenço Garcia, assistant superintendent of equity and inclusion for Revere Public Schools, and Magaly Sanchez, chief family advancement officer in Boston.

CPS has been without a permanent superintendent for more than a year, after the previous superintendent, Victoria L. Greer, resigned amid disputes over hiring practices and her response to toxicity complaints at Graham & Parks Elementary School.

Murphy, previously the district’s chief operating officer, has served as interim superintendent since July 2024. He received positive end-of-year evaluations from School Committee members, who praised his openness and readiness to confront difficult decisions head-on.

As interim, Murphy has overseen several significant changes in the district, including the closure of Kennedy-Longfellow School due to declining enrollment and underperformance and the subsequent reassignment of hundreds of students and staff. He has also facilitated the launch of universal preschool and finalized collective bargaining processes with multiple unions of CPS employees.

Murphy, who holds a law degree, has held administrative positions in several school districts but does not have experience as a classroom teacher. While many Cambridge parents and educators respect his management skills and knowledge of the district, some have raised concerns about his lack of direct teaching experience.

He has long been seen as a frontrunner in the superintendent search, and The Crimson reported last week that he was among the finalists.

In a statement to The Crimson, Murphy wrote that he feels “very fortunate to work in a community that cares as deeply about education as does Cambridge.”

“I am honored to be considered for the position of superintendent. My focus right now is on continuing to prepare for the opening of the school year,” he wrote.

Garcia, who has served as an assistant superintendent at Revere Public Schools since 2020, holds a doctor of education degree and has more than 20 years of teaching and leadership experience.

As principal of Revere High School, he led efforts that coincided with higher graduation rates, narrowed achievement gaps, and expanded postsecondary access for historically marginalized students, according to a new profile on the CPS superintendent search website.

Sanchez, who has been chief family advancement officer for Boston Public Schools since 2023, has held leadership positions in six Massachusetts and Rhode Island school districts, including serving as a high school principal in Providence and a district-wide director of family engagement in Framingham.

Sanchez has overseen efforts to secure approval for Early College and International Baccalaureate programs, restructure family engagement programs, and expand multilingual family leadership opportunities, according to her profile on the CPS superintendent search page.

At a School Committee meeting last week, Mayor E. Denise Simmons said that four finalists had been selected and would be announced on Monday. The announcement arrived on schedule — but with a surprise.

Only three finalists were announced in a message sent out by Simmons and School Committee vice chair Caroline Hunter, who are helping run the search.

It is unclear what prompted the change, and Simmons and Hunter did not respond to inquiries from The Crimson on Monday evening. In total, seven candidates were interviewed as semifinalists for the position, according to Monday’s announcement.

Only the name of one former candidate — Adam Taylor, a former superintendent of Rutland Public Schools in Vermont — has become public.

Rumors had circulated for days that Taylor was a finalist for the superintendent role, and the possibility sparked widespread backlash in the days leading up to last week’s School Committee meeting because of controversial remarks he made in 2019. But in the end Taylor was one of the four candidates who were notified last week that they did not advance past the semifinalist stage.

CPS has not publicly provided a reason he or any other candidate was removed from consideration.

The superintendent search has drawn criticism from some parents and educators who feel that they have been left in the dark. The anger crescendoed in a statement last Thursday from the Cambridge Education Association, the union representing teachers and staff in the district, which condemned the search as “opaque, undemocratic, and costly” and called for it to be restarted with more “community input.”

“This process has lost all credibility and must stop now,” read the statement, which criticized CPS for considering Taylor.

Application for the permanent superintendent position opened in May, and the district partnered with The Equity Process, a private search firm, to assist them throughout the process. A selection committee made up of 11 Cambridge residents and teachers — whose identities are currently confidential — and three School Committee members conducted interviews with the semifinalists on July 15 and 16.

Three public forums involving the CEA, Cambridge Families of Color Coalition, and School Council Chairs are scheduled for mid-August to collect additional feedback from stakeholders regarding the interview process.

The district announced that during the week of Sept. 15, School Committee members plan to visit candidates’ districts. The following week, Cambridge residents will have chances to meet the finalists, with public interviews set for Sept. 30 and Oct. 1.

The School Committee is scheduled to vote on their appointee on Oct. 6.

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