After serving three terms on Cambridge’s School Committee, David Weinstein is bidding for a fourth.
“I’ve had a lifelong commitment to education and in particular to some of the areas that I’ve really focused on as a School Committee member,” the parent and former classroom teacher said. “I’m proud of the Cambridge schools, but I’m not satisfied. There’s more to do.”
Weinstein taught high school English and K-12 art and has a background in working with children with special educational needs. He is a parent to a recent Cambridge Rindge and Latin School graduate and to a rising eighth grader at the Darby Vassall Upper School.
Weinstein said this perspective is “important” and “helpful” to bring to the committee and has one subcommittee leadership role as well: He co-chairs Curriculum & Achievement with member Richard Harding. He also chaired an Ad Hoc School Councils Subcommittee for the 2024-25 school year, he said.
“When I’m at the subcommittees that I chair, I make a real effort to proactively invite educators, parents and caregivers and students to be a part of those meetings,” he said. “I don’t really think I could do this job effectively without both being very responsive but also being proactive to get out into schools, get into communities, go to events, meet with folks.”
He looked back to his inaugural term, which began right before the Covid pandemic hit, to expand on how that equips him for the job.
“We had so much community engagement,” he said. “I had an even deeper and broader understanding of what was happening in our schools, even though it was in an unprecedented situation, than I would have had in kind of a normal first term.”
Now that engagement with stakeholders is about a search for Cambridge’s next superintendent. Weinstein has now served alongside three. “I’ve been through that transition a couple of times and learned from that each time,” he said.
Feedback on has been mixed, Weinstein said, speaking to complaints that the process is taking “too long.”
“I wish we had moved faster … that said, I do think that we are doing the right things” he said. “We’re engaging with the community. We’re getting that input,” he said, “we’ve solicited and taken into account that feedback in a substantial way.” Still, people feel “like they aren’t as up to date about where things can end as they’d like to be,” he said. “We can do better with that.”
“I am confident that we have a really strong pool of applicants,” he said. That includes interim superintendent David Murphy who has done “a great job.”
The confidentiality of a process leading to naming three finalists has been integral to ensuring the selection of the next superintendent is done ethically, even though stakeholders found it “challenging.”
He’s looking for a superintendent with whom the School Committee can work well and who sees the great beauty in Cambridge.
“We have this amazing vibrant community. We have incredible educators, we have staff at every level who I think are just amazing,” he said. “We’re really looking for that combination of the person for whom this is the right place and the right time for them, and we feel like they are the right person and it’s the right time.”
Another issue at the forefront of many School Committee candidates’ minds is the closing of the Kennedy-Longfellow school, a recommendation by Murphy that the committee approved.
“I’m not in a position to say that that process happened perfectly,” Weinstein said. “I understand concerns that I’ve heard from people throughout the community and from caregivers worried that what was happening was essentially abandoning some of our potentially most vulnerable children and caregivers. I see it as actually drawing [them] in even closer.”
The vote was to stop “concentrating children with [various special needs] all in one school,” and all or almost all students at the K-Lo will be in their first choice of new school next year.
“The schools that former Kennedy-Longfellow students are coming into are going to welcome those students with open arms,” he said.
Weinstein also noted the role that the building’s physical condition played – the 51-year-old building was due for updates long before its closing, but work plans were “derailed” due to the Covid pandemic. The lockdown “really threw things off,” he said.
He spoke to the unique position he holds as an incumbent candidate who often has to make decisions that constituents will likely not see the benefits of in the short term — but of which he believes will improve the district in the long term.
“As a candidate, I can say that sometimes what that means is making decisions that I think are unlikely to be visible to voters in the short term because they are decisions that we believe have an important impact over the long term,” he said.
An example he gave of an accomplishment with long term benefits is free universal pre-school, which he said the community might not see the benefit of for another decade, but will ultimately set Cambridge kids up for success as they enter kindergarten.
Other accomplishments he looks upon fondly from his previous terms are the launching of required Algebra 1 for all Cambridge eighth graders, extending the school day in Cambridge in collaboration with the Cambridge Education Association, and developing a “cradle-to-career” system of support for Cambridge kids. His hope is that voters look upon his achievements thus far and vote to keep him in the committee.
“I really hope that, you know, people will vote for me and give me the opportunity to continue to serve. It sounds like such a corny thing, but it really has been an honor. And even at the most challenging times, including the height of the pandemic, I really felt lucky to be in this role,” he said.
Should he be re-elected, Weinstein said that his “overarching priority” is to ensure that “every child’s needs are met, without exception.” He also hopes to continue giving attention and focus to the Cradle-To-Career programs, maintaining the upper schools, and improving funding for the arts.
This post was updated Aug. 22, 2025, with input from David Weinstein about his subcommittee chairing to correct or add meaning to quotes.
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Member Weinstein doesn’t adequately address criticisms of the superintendent search here. After Greer’s disastrous tenure—which happened on the Member’s watch—parents are rightly concerned about.
This is compounded by the secrecy of the process and the secrecy surrounding the process: Who carried out the screening? Did they pick the finalists or did a consultant? What safeguards were in place to avoid a repeat of last time? Why did Member Hunter demand that Member Hudson not communicate with her in writing?
Member Weinstein, and the rest of the School Committee, need to address the albatross in the room well before the election.