Some parents said they were “exploring legal angles” and threatened to retaliate in the voting booth.

“There must be a political price paid by all those who put nails in the Cambridge Public Schools coffin,” said Graham and Parks parent Jim Iffland.

Some parents also threatened to remove their children from the city’s schools if the committee votes to adopt the plan.

“This plan will be an impetus for parents to go outside the system for their children’s education,” Nolan said.

“People are going to second-mortgage their homes or beg and borrow to send their children to private schools,” said Peabody parent Alissa Du Bois.

But despite parental opposition, Peabody School Principal Ellen Varella said she would accept the plan if it were passed, though the merged school “is not going to be the Peabody School.”

“If the school committee decides that this is what we’re going to do, we’ll move ahead with it,” she said. “Change can be a rebirth as well—I think it will be.”

She acknowledged the potential benefits of the plan but said there is no perfect solution.

“Let’s just do it and move on,” she said. “We’re between a rock and a hard place.”

While at least two committee members have come out in support of the plan, other city officials said they listened to the protesters and would consider amendments to the plan.

Interim Superintendent of Schools Carolyn Turk said she would continue to meet with community members and principals this week and then consider changes to the plan.

“I’m really trying to be respectful and waiting this week because we haven’t heard from everyone,” she said.

But Turk said the amendments would not necessarily change the fate of the Peabody School.

“We are a district,” she said. “We need to think in terms of...what is beneficial for the district as a whole.”

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