With a School Committee decision looming on the future of 158 Spring Street, former home of the Kennedy-Longfellow School, one strong option seems to be a new space for the Amigos School, currently housed off of Central Square.
When asked about possibilities for the building in March, Committee Member Elizabeth Hudson referenced the district’s immersion and Montessori programs. “I would love to see us sit down and combine what has demonstrably worked well out of what we already have,” Hudson said. “I’m really quite partial to the language immersion programs.”
The Amigos School, one of three bilingual immersion programs in Cambridge, is the district’s only K-8 school. It began in 1986 as a program in the former Maynard School, became a full-fledged school in 2001, and shared spaces with other schools prior to its arrival at 15 Upton Street in 2012. That building may be the district’s least modern. It was constructed in 1938-39 as the new home of the Webster Elementary School, and then was renovated before it became home in 1983 to Graham and Parks Alternative School. Graham and Parks moved to its current building in 2003.
The structure at 158 Spring Street is bigger and has a notably larger cafeteria. The Amigos building does not have an auditorium, nor does it have a dedicated field.
Moving Amigos into the building may serve the district goal to get the building operational before Fall 2028 at the latest.
Anticipation
Parents with children at Amigos contacted by Cambridge Day were mostly excited about the possibility of a new school building.
“It’s an incredible building, has a big cafeteria,” said Lymi Rivera, a current Amigos parent and former Kennedy-Longfellow parent. “And what’s really thrilling for me is the outdoor space.”
Paola Rebusco, who has one child at Amigos, said the district has floated the idea of a new building for Amigos at family engagement sessions, and she’s excited about the potential move.
Priscilla Allen, a parent to two children at Amigos, was more cautious in her enthusiasm. “If there were to be a move, I would just expect that the appropriate resources and funding is put in place,” Allen said. She lives down the street from the current Amigos building. She said a larger cafeteria and a computer lab would make a longer commute worth it for her family.
Amigos doesn’t have a dedicated field of its own, so students go to nearby Dana Square Park, which involves crossing Magazine Street. Meanwhile, 158 Spring Street is next to Ahern Field, a 2.6-acre green space. While that field is a selling point for Amigos parents, some have reservations about the city’s decision to install artificial turf in place of real grass at the field.
Allen said that if Amigos moves to Spring Street, the artificial turf would be a “huge red flag.” Rebusco emphasized environmental concerns about microplastics, and added that real grass is more conducive to “children’s free play.”
In fact, some Amigos parents have rallied together to collect signatures in opposition of the field’s renovations.
Jia-Jing Lee, who had a child at Kennedy-Longfellow at the time it closed and ran for School Committee in 2025, is concerned about microplastics and chemicals associated with synthetic grass material. She is also worried for neurodivergent students with sensory processing disorders and their experience with the turf, which gets hotter than real grass.
“If you are updating the building, you also need to be making sure that it’s serving inclusive design” for the students who will be in school next door, Lee said.
Maintenance costs
The 158 Spring Street building is vacant in part because it needed significant and expensive renovations. Some parents raised questions about funding disparities across the district’s different construction projects. Anne Coburn, a former Kennedy-Longfellow parent and School Committee candidate, worried that the budget will not allow for necessary renovations for the building and for programming that will support high-need populations.
For instance, The Tobin Montessori and Darby Vassall Upper Schools and Community Complex represented a nearly $300 million investment by the city. That was, however, a brand new building, not a renovation. The district estimates a $10 million investment in reconstruction at 150 Spring Street, and an additional $7.5 million devoted to Ahern Field next door. But an October 2022 analysis of the building’s condition by DLR Group estimated more than $50 million was needed to fully renovate it, including nearly $6.8 million for electrical systems and roughly $2.7 million each for plumbing and HVAC needs.
“They’re going to have to spend some serious money to get [158 Spring Street] to be suitable for occupancy,” said Fred Fantini, who was a member of the Cambridge School Committee for 40 years and advocated to establish the Amigos School in 2001. But, Fantini sees a move to the 158 Spring Street building as an “opportunity to expand” the school’s immersion program to “support more Spanish learners” now that the school has a long waiting list. Amigos enrolled 421 students this school year, according to the Department of Elementary and Middle School Education, and is a highly sought after school in the district. The former Kennedy-Longfellow school can house up to 650 students.
It also operates as a choice school, not a proximity school. Under Cambridge’s Controlled Choice Policy, families receive preference for two “proximity schools,” the two schools which are located closest to their residence. Other preference factors include socioeconomic status and family preference. Immersion schools do not give preference to families that live nearby.
Fantini suggested that if Amigos does make the move to 158 Spring Street, it should honor the East Cambridge residents who were “really hurt by the closure” of the Kennedy-Longfellow School. He suggested it could offer neighborhood preference for East Cambridge residents. He also thought the name of the school could honor former Kennedy Longfellow families, tossing out “The Amigos at The Kennedy Longfellow,” as an option.
A stronger
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