The Cambridge City Council last night approved a $20.6 million loan order to renovate and reconstruct portions of Rindge Technical and Cambridge and Latin High Schools.

The plan passed by the council calls for the unification of the two schools--now separate but located on the same site--into one comprehensive high school, offering both occupational and academic programs.

The construction of modern facilities for the high school complex, under the direction of architect Eduardo Catalano, is aimed at preventing the state from withdrawing its accreditation, as it has threatened to do.

State Action Needed

The loan order, which passed the council on a 7-2 vote, still must be approved today by the state board of education. If the board votes the loan, the state must refund 65 per cent of school construction costs and 50 per cent of program operating costs.

City Manager James L. Sullivan last month called the loan order "the best bargain this city has ever made."

Independent Councilors Thomas W. Danehy and Daniel J. Clinton both opposed the loan, however, as an unnecessary drain on city finances.

"I don't think at this particular time with the economy such as it is that we should ask the city to increase its indebtedness," Danehy said last night.