“I’m aghast,” said Cambridge Teacher Association President Paul Toner. “I don’t know where this leaves the system.”

The meeting was, however, expected to be tense because of recent tumult concerning D’Alessandro’s controversial merger plans for the district’s 15 elementary schools to combat declining enrollment and a $3.6 million budget deficit.

D’Alessandro, who has proposed three plans for school consolidation since last spring, has come under attack from parents and committee members alike as recently as this week for insufficiently consulting the community and reacting too slowly.

“I have been waiting to see a proposal that seriously takes on the request for a consolidation proposal,” said committee member Alan C. Price, who recently proposed and withdrew his own merger plan. “The superintendent has assured me that one would be coming soon and I still haven’t seen it.”

Alfred B. Fantini, the only committee member to vote against the measure, said D’Alessandro alone should not be blamed for the district’s problems.

“The school committee can’t separate itself from where we are today,” he said.

Audience members responded to Fantini’s statement with applause.

“The school committee does the dumbest things on the face of the earth and then they need a scapegoat,” said parent Jackie Carroll.

D’Alessandro and her staff departed immediately following the meeting, leaving a stunned audience contemplating a school system now looking for a new leader while still plotting solutions for its existing problems.

“I think this has enormous implications for our school system,” said teacher Debbie Downs. “I’m concerned that very talented people are going to leave.”

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