Plans for where to place current students of the soon-to-close Kennedy-Longfellow School are bringing confusion.
The decision to close the 158 Spring St., East Cambridge, school, with its roughly 220 students grades pre-K through 5, was confirmed by a School Committee vote Dec. 17 due to a combination of low test scores and concentration of high-needs students. It is set to close at the end of this school year.
At Tuesday’s committee meeting, interim superintendent David Murphy said the district has been in contact with all K-Lo families one-on-one to go over transition planning. Distribution of students will happen in two ways, as laid out in a Jan. 10 letter to families: Students will move in groups to ensure continuity, with rising first and second graders going to the King Open School at 850 Cambridge St., Wellington-Harrington, and rising third, fourth and fifth graders going to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School at 102 Putnam Ave. Riverside; or parents can choose to participate in a special lottery for available seats across the district.
(Of the 66 percent of families who have indicated a preference, 63 percent will participate in the group move and 37 percent have chosen the lottery. The deadline to participate in the lottery is Friday.)
The change in location sets the groups up for moving to different upper schools as fifth graders become sixth graders: Putnam Avenue, which shares a campus with the MLK School; or the Cambridge Street Upper School, which shares a campus with the King Open. While that’s the intention, according to the district, alarms were set off when its communications suggested otherwise.
Confusion over upper school
All parents who spoke during public comment Tuesday raised concerns over what they perceived to be the district’s plan for all current K-Lo students to go the Putnam Avenue Upper School. This would mean students who are moved to King Open would spend years with new classmates only to be separated from them in the sixth grade.
Kids should have the option of switching to PAUS if they prefer, rather than the district assigning them automatically “when the time for middle school comes,” said Anne Coburn, parent of a K-Lo fifth grader and member of the K-Lo caregiver advocates.
Laura Clawson, a Graham & Parks parent, called the perceived decision “irresponsible to a degree that would be ridiculous if it wasn’t so harmful” and suggested that anyone involved in developing the plan should have their professional judgement questioned.
“If it’s not the plan” Clawson said, “it’s a massive communications failure by district leaders, and one they’ve failed to correct” since K-Lo advocates outlined their understanding in a Jan. 16 newsletter. The group, formed in the wake of the decision to close the school, first proposed the alternative in the newsletter.
Member Richard Harding had no previous knowledge of the plan and asked Murphy for clarification, adding that he would hope the committee would have a say in the matter. “I do think that I would like to see less transitions. I just want to be clear, I was supporting the notion that when a kid moved to wherever they went, they would then follow the natural progression into middle school,” Harding said.
Putnam Avenue fallback
Offering families a choice is not as simple as it may seem, since it is dependent on available seats, Murphy said, but “it is my expectation that students whose families want their children to matriculate into the designated upper school as part of the triad that they attend next year will have the opportunity.”
The district cannot guarantee space at the Cambridge Street Upper School for students who transition to King Open next year, though. Space will be held at PAUS as a fallback, so no “unsustainable bubbles” go to CSUS, as Murphy phrased it.
“We are doing our absolute best to provide accurate info,” Coburn said after the meeting of Murphy’s response. “I’ve been sitting with this information for weeks now and I am still confused by the most recent explanation. I’m hoping to have the opportunity to better understand.”
Jackie Piques, the new director of communications for the district, clarified over email Tuesday night that a Jan. 10 letter to families indicated PAUS as the destination for sixth graders and meant only the current class of fifth-graders without discounting the possibility of all K-Lo students attending PAUS. “We will continue to communicate and clarify as needed,” she said.
Despite the confusion, the district is confident it is moving in the right direction, “We’re going to keep moving along and prioritize the students of that building, as we have from the time that we first brought this information to your attention in November,” Murphy said.
Coburn, differences aside, agrees. “I’m in awe of what they’ve accomplished since the beginning of the year.”
“The K-Lo administration and staff have been working tirelessly to reach out to the K-Lo community, and they’ve been working closely with the district to achieve the task of speaking with all families affected by the transition,” Coburn said.
The district has communicated that it will provide a more substantive update in the first week of February.
A stronger
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Seems like district is not doing a great job of informing families.