“It makes me feel that we have to start looking at private school,” said parent Elizabeth Gibb.

When public comment finally gave way to discussion of the committee’s agenda, committee member Alice L. Turkel said she too had been demoralized, and questioned her children’s enrollment in the system.

“It shook my own personal confidence in our schools,” she said.

With his plan all but doomed, Price withdrew the measure. Committee member Alfred B. Fantini then proposed postponing a vote on D’Alessandro’s plan and engaging the community in the revision process.

Some committee members, however, said they thought the committee should put off any merger plans until next year and simply focus on improving education instead.

“I don’t know how we get to the end, but there has to be an end and it has to be about closing the achievement gap and improving teaching and learning across the system,” said Mayor Michael A. Sullivan.

But other members reinforced the need to address the budget deficit and confirm plans before parents enroll their children in elementary schools next fall.

“We have to have had a plan yesterday,” said Director of the Cambridge Family Resource Center Lenore Prueser, who said a decision on mergers would have to be made by December to allow parents to make informed decisions on school kindergarten placements for next year.

The final vote to extend the merger timeline and the committee’s pledge to focus on school input relieved committee members.

“I felt like there was a guillotine over our heads,” Fantini said. “The pressure had to be released.”

But committee members also acknowledged the need to mend a larger problem–their repeated inability to work together. They said yesterday they have decided to hire “coaches” to help them solve disputes.

“When we work like this, it destroys moral and productivity,” Price said.

—Staff writer Claire A. Pasternack can be reached at cpastern@fas.harvard.edu.