Two Schools Share One Building, Uncertain Future

Inside a large, yellow concrete building located a few blocks from Mather House, an educational controversy is brewing.

At stake is the future identity of the two Cambridge elementary schools housed there.

Although their students eat in the same cafeteria and share the same gymnasium, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School and the King Open School are strikingly different.

The King School receives more funding per pupil but its students score worse on state-wide math and reading tests. Two-thirds of its students are from minority groups; 60 percent receive free or reduced-cost school lunches.

Students at King Open--an alternative school that branched off from the King School in 1993--score significantly better on standardized exams. Half its students are from minority backgrounds; less than a quarter get free or reduced-cost lunches.

At the crux of the debate is a recent report commissioned by the Cambridge School Department that recommends the merger of the two schools.

Released last month, the "Master Plan on the Location of Programs and the Use of Facilities for Cambridge Public Schools" argues that a merger between the King School and King Open would result in a more efficient use of the building.

The report was written by Charles V. Willie, professor of education and urban studies at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (GSE), and three other authors.

It stated that combining the schools would help the city's School Committee meet its affirmative-action mandate, which commits the school system to "increasing cross-cultural understanding."

But some parents and officials on both sides say they feel the merger would most hurt those it is designed to help: the students.

Differences Persist

The report recommended the merger of the two schools "because of their current similarities and the complementary benefits that each school could bring to the union."

Parents and administrators argue, however, that although the schools have grown more similar over the years, the common perception is that fundamental differences in school culture still exist.

Joseph McKeigue, principal of the King School, said that the perception of the King School is of a "minority, free-lunch school and the King Open [is] more a majority, middle-class school."

Test scores of students at King School are markedly lower than those at King Open, a testament to the socioeconomic differences between two schools, according to McKeigue.

The average King School fourth-and eighth-grader scored at or below the school district average on the Massachusetts Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) administered in 1993-94.

Most fourth- and eighth-graders at King Open scored well above the school district average on all sections of the 1993-94 MEAP.

"Test scores usually correlate [strongly] to socioeconomic status," McKeigue says.

In addition, the King School receives a much higher level of city aid per student.

According to the 1996-97 Cambridge Public Schools Annual Budget, $9,862 was budgeted per student at the King School compared to $7,316 at King Open.

History

When King Open began as a developmental program in 1975, it "started off as an alternative pro- gram" according to Mary Eirich, the current principal of the school.

With students not sitting in rows and calling teachers by their first names, the school was a "reflection of '70s culture," Eirich says.

The King School is more of a traditional school, says Gordon R. Thompson, co-chair of the parent-led King Open Steering Committee and the father of two girls who attend King Open, one in the third grade and one in the eighth.

Though the principals at both schools are quick to point out the amicable nature of relations between students, faculty and administrators of the two schools, Thompson says that there were a "variety of instances of friction" when the King Open program was growing.

"Because the school cultures are different and aspects of the curriculum and teaching style are different, it is inevitable that there would be friction and indeed there was," Thompson says.

Thompson says tensions have subsided since the position of a separate King Open principal was created.

Mary Eirich, who began as principal at King Open last September, says that administrators at both schools do not have formal meetings everyday but do "run things by each other."

Conflicting Opinions

The possibility of a merger has drawn strong criticism from parents at King Open and a more lukewarm response from parents at King School.

"You can't treat communities of people like two liquids in a chemistry experiment where if you mix liquid A and liquid B they will average out and stay the same," Thompson says.

School Department spokesperson James T. Ball says that preserving the "different identities and different teaching styles" of the two schools is an advantage to keeping the schools distinct.

The basic dividing line runs along the question of whether a small school with a distinct culture provides a better education than a larger school with more pooled resources.

Eirich says she favors keeping the two schools separate in part because merging the two schools into a larger school would be disadvantageous to students.

"A lot of the literature suggests that the way to go is with smaller schools with a greater sense of identity," Eirich says.

Thompson says the King Open Steering Committee has lobbied the Cambridge School Committee, expressing its wish to keep the two schools separate.

Thompson says the King Open Steering Committee has held community meetings about the possibility of a merger and has presented recommendations to the school committee stating the belief of the committee that "small programs provide a better education than large programs" and that "two schools can flourish in one building."

The steering committee also suggested that the school department establish a city-wide task force including parents and staff to "readdress questions of racial and social inequality, space utilization and other issues addressed by the consultants."

McKeigue favors a merger of the two schools.

"I believe that where you have a school in which...parent involvement is all focused on a set of core values...can be a stronger, more effective educational environment for children and families," McKeigue says.

Though he is in favor of a merger, the principal says he has not been lobbying the School Committee to combine the two very distinct schools because he thinks there must be a large number of parents in favor of a merger for it to occur and be beneficial to students.

Beth Carman, a family liaison for the King School and mother of first- and third-grade boys at the school, says that she does not personally want to see the merger happen because "the small school concept is a good concept" but notes that the stance of the King School Council is "not totally against a merger."

"We'd like to leave our options open," Carman says.

Cambridge School Superintendent Mary Lou McGrath will make her recommendation regarding the merger on May 6, according to Ball, the School Department's director of public information.CrimsonAnna M. Schneider-MayersonA report suggested merging the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School and King Open School.

With students not sitting in rows and calling teachers by their first names, the school was a "reflection of '70s culture," Eirich says.

The King School is more of a traditional school, says Gordon R. Thompson, co-chair of the parent-led King Open Steering Committee and the father of two girls who attend King Open, one in the third grade and one in the eighth.

Though the principals at both schools are quick to point out the amicable nature of relations between students, faculty and administrators of the two schools, Thompson says that there were a "variety of instances of friction" when the King Open program was growing.

"Because the school cultures are different and aspects of the curriculum and teaching style are different, it is inevitable that there would be friction and indeed there was," Thompson says.

Thompson says tensions have subsided since the position of a separate King Open principal was created.

Mary Eirich, who began as principal at King Open last September, says that administrators at both schools do not have formal meetings everyday but do "run things by each other."

Conflicting Opinions

The possibility of a merger has drawn strong criticism from parents at King Open and a more lukewarm response from parents at King School.

"You can't treat communities of people like two liquids in a chemistry experiment where if you mix liquid A and liquid B they will average out and stay the same," Thompson says.

School Department spokesperson James T. Ball says that preserving the "different identities and different teaching styles" of the two schools is an advantage to keeping the schools distinct.

The basic dividing line runs along the question of whether a small school with a distinct culture provides a better education than a larger school with more pooled resources.

Eirich says she favors keeping the two schools separate in part because merging the two schools into a larger school would be disadvantageous to students.

"A lot of the literature suggests that the way to go is with smaller schools with a greater sense of identity," Eirich says.

Thompson says the King Open Steering Committee has lobbied the Cambridge School Committee, expressing its wish to keep the two schools separate.

Thompson says the King Open Steering Committee has held community meetings about the possibility of a merger and has presented recommendations to the school committee stating the belief of the committee that "small programs provide a better education than large programs" and that "two schools can flourish in one building."

The steering committee also suggested that the school department establish a city-wide task force including parents and staff to "readdress questions of racial and social inequality, space utilization and other issues addressed by the consultants."

McKeigue favors a merger of the two schools.

"I believe that where you have a school in which...parent involvement is all focused on a set of core values...can be a stronger, more effective educational environment for children and families," McKeigue says.

Though he is in favor of a merger, the principal says he has not been lobbying the School Committee to combine the two very distinct schools because he thinks there must be a large number of parents in favor of a merger for it to occur and be beneficial to students.

Beth Carman, a family liaison for the King School and mother of first- and third-grade boys at the school, says that she does not personally want to see the merger happen because "the small school concept is a good concept" but notes that the stance of the King School Council is "not totally against a merger."

"We'd like to leave our options open," Carman says.

Cambridge School Superintendent Mary Lou McGrath will make her recommendation regarding the merger on May 6, according to Ball, the School Department's director of public information.CrimsonAnna M. Schneider-MayersonA report suggested merging the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. School and King Open School.