He takes issue with the way the committee fired D’Alessandro—a process, he says, that ignored her concrete accomplishments.

A year ago, the committee wrote a to-do list for D’Alessandro, and last week D’Alessandro presented a list showing that she had completed or addressed all of the tasks.

Fantini says committee members judged D’Alessandro unfairly because they “didn’t really stick” to the expectations they had laid out.

He says he disapproves of the “condescending” way committee members praised D’Alessandro’s work and then promptly fired her.

“It was clear that that was just a really cruel process to put her through,” he says. “If you’re going to do it then do it and be done with it and do it in a respectful way.”

But other committee members defended the meeting, saying they acted professionally.

“I’m not going to apologize for being honest,” Grassi says. “If people are upset with that decision they can be upset with that decision.”

Some parents say D’Alessandro served as a “scapegoat” for internal problems with the committee, which had agreed to hire coaches to improve its relations with the superintendent.

But Price maintains that the committee’s own failures present a “completely independent” problem and had no effects on the contract decision.

According to Fantini, committee members never discussed what they would do if they chose not to renew D’Alessandro’s contract.

“There wasn’t a game plan,” he says. “You should be talking, because if you’re going to make a bold move like that you need to have A, B, C and D, and you’d better be prepared to have a game plan.”

With only a few months to find a replacement, Cambridge could find itself feeling the superintendent shortage that faces much of New England.

“I don’t know where they’re going to find a replacement,” says Cambridge Teacher Association President Paul Toner, who has praised D’Alessandro for addressing teachers’ concerns.

Price says that finding a new leader for the district will be “the first order of business” for the committee.

Already, committee members are planning to hire a search firm to find D’Alessandro’s replacement.