Committee Picks Maynard Elementary Site for Merged School

Putting an end to nearly two months of widespread anxiety, the Cambridge School Committee voted last night that the merged Fletcher-Maynard elementary school will be located in the Maynard building.

Superintendent of Schools Bobbie J. D'Alessandro recommended Maynard as the school's permanent home after an architectural study earlier this spring found Maynard to be larger and more livable than Fletcher.

Two members, Susana M. Segat and E. Denise Simmons, voted "present" instead of yes or no.

They objected that the site recommendation--first presented to members at the school committee meeting last night--was hurried and lacked the sanction of the steering committee, a group of parents, teachers and district officials that has met weekly since fall to discuss the merger.

But five members, including Alice L. Turkel, supported the measure.

"This vote is a simple vote, a vote to get the work started," Turkel said, comparing it to the contentious vote to merge the two schools in the first place.

The measure approved last night also includes $1.1 million in capital improvements to Maynard over the next two years.

The architectural study recommended about $276,000 for work including painting, lockers for the upper grades and an expansion of the library.

Last week, City Manager Robert W. Healy approved more money for roof repairs, furniture, carpet and window replacement, as well as more than $400,000 for technology. Some of this added work will be done next year, but the window and technology upgrades will wait for the following year.

Although the steering committee's site selection subcommittee concurred with the architectural report's findings, the committee as a whole did not even vote on that recommendation in a meeting Monday at the Maynard School.

Parents said they were upset that as they met to discuss site selection, the city council was already approving the $1.1 million in improvements to Maynard.

Chemi Whitlow, a Maynard parent on the steering committee, called the process an "insult."

D'Alessandro acknowledged last night that the decision had been made without the steering committee.

"They thought this had already been done by the city council, which it had," she said, "so it would be after the fact."

But she defended her decision to bring her recommendation.

"It's imperative that I bring this forward this evening," she told school committee members last night.

D'Alessandro had warned members of the steering committee last week that she needed to make her recommendation tonight so repair work and planning for next year could get underway.

Parents also said they worried that the $1.1 million was offered instead of larger-scale renovations, which the architectural study said could cost as much as $12 million.

"The inability of the steering committee to make a recommendation is not about a lack of support for the Maynard," said Cheryl Kennedy, a Fletcher parent. "I don't think there can be a recommendation without the promise of major reconstruction."

Whitlow, who regularly passes out fliers at steering committee meetings, has said renovation funds are essential for the merged school.

Last week she distributed a page proclaiming "No Money, No Merger!"

The handout featured a caricature of D'Alessandro with a pointed chin and bald spot on her head, clutching a satchel labeled "$141,000 salary."

In speech bubbles, the cartoon showed D'Alessandro saying, "Baaah, go find your own funds!" and "All I care about is my resume."

According to the handout, "D'Alessandro and her hench-people deceived this community into merging their two elementary schools," and the "two schools will be dumped into an inferior building and forgotten!"

School committee members said they would press for state funding of a major renovation of the Maynard school. But the state is rewriting the laws that govern state financing of local school building projects, and the prospects for state money are uncertain.

One factor working against state money for the merged school is Cambridge's declining enrollment and high number of empty seats--which will exceed 1,700 next year.

But D'Alessandro and others say they are hopeful the merged school's ambitious academic program will convince state officials to support the project.

After a process full of controversy--from the original vote to merge to heated steering committee meetings about location and money for renovations--school committee members urged renewed enthusiasm last night.

Committee member Alfred B. Fantini, who supported the measure, said committee and community members need to rally around the merged school, which has yet to be named.

"I can't be the fullback and get the ball with the front line thinking I can't gain five yards," he said.

According to committee member Joseph G. Grassi, "there is a beautiful flower that is blooming in Area Four, and that is the Maynard school."