Cambridge Public Schools Plans Renovations to Kennedy-Longfellow School Building

Cambridge Public Schools is planning significant building upgrades for the Kennedy-Longfellow School building following its closure later this year, according to Interim Superintendent David G. Murphy during a Monday night Building and Grounds Subcommittee meeting.

One of many factors that led to the December 17th School Committee decision to close the Kennedy-Longfellow school was that it was identified as one of four schools in the district that was in need of “the greatest level of capital investment.”

K-Lo has long served as a swing space for the district, meaning classes in other schools displaced by construction or facilities issues like burst pipes were temporarily relocated there. In the meeting, Murphy noted that the district’s dependence on the K-Lo as swing space prevented it from initiating major renovations there, though he maintained that it did not ultimately receive less investment than most other schools.

Nevertheless, Murphy said, “clearly there is a stark contrast between the physical condition of the Kennedy-Longfellow as it is now and the new buildings that either have or about to open.”

Murphy said that in the future the district plans to capitalize on the building’s vacancy “effectively for the entire 12 month period” to make a significant capital investment in the infrastructure. While the next chapter for the K-Lo building itself is not yet clear, the district is still planning to reuse it in some way.

“Regardless of what we're going to do with the building, in terms of which school community or school communities ultimately occupy the Kennedy-Longfellow, we know that there are things that have to be done,” Murphy said.

In its presentation, the district identified a range of possible upgrades the K-Lo — which they referred to as simply 158 Spring St. — could benefit from.

The proposal included potential improvements to nearly every aspect of the building, including to HVAC and plumbing systems; the auditorium, lobby, and cafeteria, and ceilings; and floors, ceilings, and drywall. Beyond the specific sites of improvement, the presentation did not include what specific action each one would need.

The city and the district have not yet allocated the funds for these investments into K-Lo, and Murphy acknowledged that while there are “variables changing in the city's financial landscape that have to require a degree of strategizing.” Yet, he said he still felt “comfortable and confident” that they would get the funding to make the proposed upgrades.

During the meeting, the subcommittee also discussed the Preschool matriculation policy now that all families participating in the kindergarten lottery have received their school placements, with around 85 percent receiving one of their top 3 choices.

Murphy commented that the district had “some reservations” about the ability of the current preschool matriculation school assignment policy to “maintain the socioeconomic balancing.”

He also spoke to the ranked choice system, which was one contributing factor to the K-Lo’s decline, given that its poor reputation led families to rank it low, which caused under enrollment.

Murphy addressed control choice systems’ impact on the issues that emerged at K-Lo “control choice is one variable in a complicated formula that has an outsized impact on the school district, and it's really hard to sort of isolate school choice as assessing the breadth of its impact” he said.

The matriculation policy “also is not necessarily conducive to building out durable school communities that can withstand some of the ebbs and flows of population changes,” Murphy added.

—Staff writer Claire A. Michal can be reached at claire.michal@thecrimson.com.