“If you’d held the vote back in June it would have gone similarly,” he says.

Criticism from Price and others centered on what D’Alessandro hasn’t done—communicating with parents and keeping up with the school committee’s demands.

When D’Alessandro had come under fire before, it had been for the drastic projects she was pushing through one after the other.

Soon after she took office, D’Alessandro revamped the district’s failing technical arts program and led a controversial redesign of the high school meant to even discrepancies among its five small schools.

She also focused on special education, hiring a new director and placing specialists in elementary schools.

Two years ago she merged the Fletcher and Maynard elementary schools, two under-performing programs in a black and Latino neighborhood.

And last winter she changed the district’s elementary school assignment plan to include socio-economic status, not just race, a move that drew national attention.

At each point, D’Alessandro assembled a temporary coalition of supporters, but gradually her relations with the people who run the schools—not just the school committee but the vocal parents it answers to—deteriorated.

Since last spring, when she proposed merging some of the city’s elementary schools to combat declining enrollment and a budget shortfall, her support has further waned.

School committee members and parents accused her of taking too long to churn out consolidation plans, and furthermore not even using the time to adequately consult families.

In recent weeks, hundreds of parents have turned out at committee meetings to protest the merger proposals. They used hours of the public comment periods to complain they had not been notified of changes that would affect their schools. Some had gone as far as to suggest that D’Alessandro be fired.

“I don’t think she had the ability to work with parents,” says parent Craig Kelley. “She never ever responded to our communications to her, not once.”

Alfred B. Fantini, who cast the lone vote for D’Alessandro last week, says recent events contributed to the committee’s decision to call it quits with the current superintendent.

“There was a lot of heavy stuff going on and I think that certainly played a role,” he says.

But other committee members say the turmoil over merger plans did not affect their vote. Joseph G. Grassi calls consolidation a “passing issue” and focuses instead on D’Alessandro’s failure to address long-term educational goals.