The Kennedy-Longfellow School is officially set to close at the end of the 2024-2025 school year, as confirmed by a unanimous School Committee vote late Tuesday.
The recommendation to close the 51-year-old, K-5 school at 158 Spring St., East Cambridge, was first presented by interim superintendent David Murphy at a Dec. 10 meeting with K-Lo community members. Before that came meetings where he showed how a disproportionate number of number of high-needs students were housed at the K-Lo, accompanied by low test scores – and alluded to a necessary change.
The school building will be renovated for reuse in September 2026, according to rollout plan slides presented by Murphy. A community engagement process will take place to determine the future population of the school, he said in an email to Cambridge Day. “The organizing principles of that process will be based on how we best position the most CPS students for success, particularly while prioritizing students who are most vulnerable, and ensuring more representative populations in all school communities,” Murphy said.
In a Wednesday press release confirming the school closing, Murphy described the decision as “difficult but necessary” for equity and high-quality education in the district.
K-Lo caregivers say they have been calling on the district to give more attention to the school for years, but have been gaslit and ignored. “Students at K-Lo deserve restitution for the many years that the School Committee failed to take action on a system they knew was inadequate,” a caregivers group wrote Monday in a newsletter formed in the wake of recent deliberations.
Comments to the committee
The coalition has decided to not fight the decision, to the dismay of some community members, and said it will instead focus members’ energy on helping families through the transition.
“Honor your promises and prioritize K-Lo families. Honor your promises and listen to the K-Lo community. Let families tell you what they need and then do it,” said Lisa Domigan, a member of the group and parent to a fourth-grader, during public comment at the Tuesday meeting. “Honor your promises” was a phrase directed at the administration, committee and interim superintendent by many of the 53 commenters.
Some committee members apologized for their part in K-Lo’s decline.
“I take partial responsibility for finding ourselves in this moment,” said member Rachel Weinstein, citing the lack of annual review to the controlled choice policy that places students, and which has been cited as the biggest factor in K-Lo’s imbalance. Member David Weinstein (no relation) also expressed regret, promising higher standards of accountability.
Mayor E. Denise Simmons was not in the room during the nearly two-hour public comment period, a parade of parents, teachers and other community members wearing pins that read “I stand with K-Lo.” She was seen sitting in a back room with assistant superintendent of elementary and early education Michelle Madera; it is unclear if they were listening to the public comment.
“I wish the mayor could have been bothered to be here tonight, at one of the most important meetings of her many terms in office,” said Missy Page, a K-Lo advocate, during her public comment. Cambridge Day reached out to the mayor for clarification, but there was no immediate response.
Looking ahead
President of the Cambridge Education Association Dan Monahan presented four demands to the committee: that students be placed in new schools in groups, for the sake of continuity, but have options to choose other placements; that educators and caregivers be included as equal partners in decisions resulting from the order to close; that educators be compensated for their role in the transition process; and that there will be no job cuts.
Murphy could not make promises about keeping educator and staff jobs while closing a 220-student school. “I don’t anticipate a significant reduction of any kind,” he said. “I expect to maintain a vast majority.”
As to student placements, a plan presented by Murphy would create space for groups of students to move into the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School at 102 Putnam Ave., Riverside, or the King Open School at 850 Cambridge St., Wellington-Harrington. Families who opt out of the cohorts will be able to take part in a special lottery to fill seats at other public schools, space permitting. The families will get “priority status” in the lottery, which will continue into the 2026-2027 school year.
The goal, Murphy said, is to create more seats across all district schools, so one school doesn’t again hold a disproportionate number of high-needs students. The district plans to create these seats by repurposing underused space and concentrating preschools in fewer buildings.
“It will be my priority for as long as I am superintendent to try and create a different set of conditions more consistent with the fundamental values of our public school system,” said Murphy at the close of the five-hour meeting.
Moving students and programs
While not confirmed, Murphy said that the Sheltered English Immersion program – for students whose first language is not English – will likely be transferred to the campus of the John M. Tobin Montessori School and Darby Vassall Upper School. The schools are expected to reopen on the campus near Fresh Pond next year after a long, $299 million construction.
A superintendent’s advisory group is set to convene in early January, and while the scope of the group is yet to be determined, caregivers are hopeful there will be clarity soon. Families will begin touring schools and attending information sessions in January. The superintendent is set to report back to the committee no later than Feb. 4 on progress.
The K-Lo caregivers advocacy group believes there should be stipends for the superintendent’s advisory committee. “If we can be compensated, we can also be held accountable if we’re not doing a good job,” said Anne Coburn, parent to a K-Lo fifth grader, in a message to Cambridge Day. The group is proposing the money come from excess funds in the 2024-2025 School Improvement Plan budget. “The improvement plan for K-Lo for this year is the smooth and successful transition of students to other school communities,” Page said.
A stronger
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Shameful that the mayor couldn’t be bothered to listen to the people affected by this major event in the district and the city.
This quote really hit home…
“I wish the mayor could have been bothered to be here tonight, at one of the most important meetings of her many terms in office,” said Missy Page, a K-Lo advocate, during her public comment.
Let’s be honest, it will be a couple months until a biotech real estate breaks ground for a new lab building at that site, so why keep pretending that the City ever had any intention of supporting the school.