Families with preschool students will begin to rank their preferences for next year’s school placements before a decision is made on what will move into the empty building at 158 Spring Street.
The preschool school choice lottery – Cambridge’s way of collecting family preference for school placement – will open on Oct. 1, but the School Committee agreed at Tuesday’s meeting that they will not vote on the future of the building until Oct. 20. Superintendent Dave Murphy presented three options for 158 Spring Street at Tuesday’s meeting: move the Amigos School, merge two Upper Schools, or create a hub for early-childhood education. All three options, which would be implemented for the Fall of 2028 at the latest, have the potential to impact a family’s school ranking. (All of the district’s elementary schools, including the Amigos School, the district’s only PreK-8 school, house preschool programs).
Families will be able to make changes to their ranking until Nov. 15, meaning “no one will be at a disadvantage,” Murphy said at the meeting.
For families that may complete their rankings before Oct. 20, the materials that list school options for the lottery will delineate the schools in consideration for a move. For example, next to the Amigos School, which has been a leading option to move to Spring Street, will be information about the school’s current home at Upton Street and the potential that it may move within the next two years.
There will be “additional communication to families who might be impacted by the potential change to ensure they have the information they need to update their preferences before the lottery window closes,” said Jackie Piques, the director of communications for the district.
Some committee members expressed concern that this process will confuse families.
Committee Member Elizabeth Hudson has been openly critical of the vote’s timeline.
“It would be like you opening a new restaurant, but you haven’t yet finalized the menu,” Hudson said in a Wednesday interview. “The menu gets finalized 30 minutes into the evening.” She added that “There will be a family who feels misled.” While the kindergarten lottery does not open until early next year, Hudson said part of her concern is that preschool placements can affect where a child matriculates to elementary and upper school.
Member Richard Harding said that aside from the 158 Spring Street vote, there are discrepancies in the information certain families have about their school choices.
“You have many families who are not as in tune, as sophisticated and savvy” about how to get their child into their top-choice school, Harding said in an interview Wednesday. His biggest concern about the 158 Spring Street vote, he said, has been that it would compromise “the integrity of the school assignment process.”
Several hundred families with preschool-age children will enter into this year’s lottery, where they will rank their preferences for school assignments for the 2027-28 school year. Those preferences will ultimately be considered alongside other factors like socioeconomic status and proximity of siblings’ schools, to determine a child’s final school placement, a mechanism of Cambridge’s Controlled Choice Plan.
But the district alone could not alter the dates of the lottery to accommodate the Spring Street vote. Preschool families used to rank choices directly with the Cambridge Public Schools but the lottery is now run through the Office of Early Childhood under the Department of Human Services. The shift came in 2023 during the rollout of the Cambridge Preschool Program, which represents an intersection between city and district-run programming.
While Hudson said she wished the city could have pushed back lottery dates, she is grateful that the committee has set a timeline for the rest of the process.
Harding and Hudson, along with Member Arjun Jaikumar, co-sponsored a motion at Tuesday’s meeting that would have had the committee vote on a solidified timeline for the 158 Spring Street decision.
Hudson said the goal of the motion was to force a discussion on the matter. While there have been various community engagement sessions held by the superintendent, the committee has sparsely discussed timeline details at its regular meetings.
The motion was struck last minute after Hudson said she accomplished her goal when the discussion was added to the agenda.
The “downside” of striking the motion, however, is that without a vote, the committee is not legally bound to a specific timeline, Hudson added.
Capacity a consideration
One consideration for determining the fate of the empty building is capacity.
The Spring Street building can house up to 650 students as it stands, but could have a maximum capacity of 850 after renovations, Murphy confirmed.
Either way, if the Amigos School of 450 students moves to Spring Street, the committee will have to decide how to fill the extra seats.
In an interview, Hudson suggested filling the extra capacity with early-childhood programming, which would free up space in other buildings where those programs are currently held. Hudson added that Ahern Field, the main green space at Spring Street, and the other outdoor facilities in that area are “most appropriate for middle school students,” an argument to move the Amigos School.
Harding suggested that if Amigos moves to Spring Street the extra seats could be used to expand access to Amigos’ bilingual programming, which is high in demand as the district’s only dual-language immersion program.
It remains unclear how specific the committee’s plan for 158 Spring Street will be by the proposed Oct. 20 vote. Without an official motion, there are no legal parameters that guide when the vote must take place, or how specific it must be.
Whether the committee decides to vote on a general recommendation, or specific ideas for the building’s programming, will depend on the committee’s “ability to to communicate within itself,” Hudson said.
Murphy’s recommendation on the building’s future is expected in early October. The committee will meet for its next regular session on Tuesday Oct. 6, its final opportunity to discuss 158 Spring Street as a group ahead of the Oct. 20 vote.
A stronger
Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.
We are now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible.
Please consider a recurring contribution.