About 300 people packed the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS) media cafeteria Tuesday night in advance of a much-anticipated School Committee vote on parental choice at CRLS.

But outside, 25 angry students held what they termed a candelight vigil before the committee's meeting, protesting the board's four to three decision on Jan. 23 to reinstate parental choice in the "small school" system at CRLS next year.

Students said they think the effects of randomization, implemented in the high school this year, have yet to be felt.

"We need to understand restructuring and how it will work," said Aman M. Milner, CRLS senior class president.

He said the experiences of students under the old house system--in which parents chose from among widely differing educational programs for their children--and those of students under the new redesign can only be accurately compared once the the first full class to study under the "small school" format graduates in 2004.

"We don't want to add another variable to the experiment [of restructuring]," Milner said. "We are depending on the vote."

Last February, the School Committee voted to implement randomization for one year, but administrators, including Superintendent of Schools Bobbie J. D'Alessandro and CRLS Principal Paula M. Evans, proposed maintaining the new policy for two more years.

Two weeks ago, in a surprising turn of events, the School Committee voted four to three to continue according to the original plan's timetable and reinstate parental choice at the end of this year.

The vote met with tremendous opposition, and prompted both D'Alessandro and Evans to say they felt critically undermined by the school board's decision.

Students and parents at the meeting wore silver ribbons to mark themselves as opponents of choice.

The house system was widely believed to create inequities between students of different races, as seen by dramatic differences in student success across houses.

"With the old system, it was de facto segregation," said Daniel B. Kahn, a CRLS senior. "Choice is not something that needs to be in a restructured school."

--Staff writer Nicole B. Usher can be reached at usher@fas.harvard.edu.