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.