Victims of the Budget Crunch

Angry Cantabrigians are boarding protest buses, Amigos and Ola are fighting for their lives, and an unpopular school board has to sort through it all. A $2.6 million budget deficit and decades of declining enrollment mean that at least two Cambridge elementary schools have to close, and it’s not an easy decision for the beleaguered school board and the district’s lame-duck superintendent, Bobbie J. D’Alessandro, to make. One way or another, someone’s beloved neighborhood school will get the axe, and probably one of the valuable Amigos and Ola bilingual programs (in Spanish and Portuguese, respectively) along with it. The latest proposal, from the outgoing superintendent, is the best option to close the school board’s burgeoning budget gap and to improve the quality of education offered to Cambridge’s students.

The superintendent wants to close two of Cambridge’s worst performing schools—the Fitzgerald School and the Harrington School—which have among the lowest MCAS scores in the district. After two better-performing schools move onto the empty campuses, the school district will have merged five student bodies into three, and Ola will have moved across the city, an action that will likely destroy the program.

The plan, however, will free up a school building so the central administration will be able to move out of the expensive rented space it presently inhabits, more schools will get better buildings and students from the under-performing schools will benefit from interacting with better test-takers from across the city. The fact that this proposal has the potential to save money and actually improve education for Cambridge elementary school students makes it the best option yet.

If the school board adopts the plan, the next superintendent needs to make sure the schools don’t botch the job. The needs of the displaced students must not be neglected by the new, better-performing schools moving in. That means incoming teachers need to continue offering their old students an excellent education, while at the same time working with new struggling students to help them catch up and integrate into a more rigorous academic environment. Ideally, the district should also find a way to keep the Ola program where it is, so it can continue to serve Cambridge’s Portuguese-speaking students in a neighborhood that gives such strong community support.

Implementing this plan isn’t going to be easy. Neighborhood schools will be closed, students will be relocated and feelings will be hurt. But angry parents and their teary-eyed elementary school students, which they shamelessly parade in front of the school board, must realize that tough decisions have to be made to solve the district’s budget crisis. It’s time for well-meaning community activists and the school board to face the facts and accept the best solution on the table.