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While Cambridge Public Schools works to transition students from the Kennedy-Longfellow School, following a December vote to close the school, some parents and staff say they need more agency and clarity over what happens next.

In a Tuesday School Committee meeting, Interim Superintendent David G. Murphy said there is “a need to move at an urgent pace” to transition students, but acknowledged “external variables ranging from the federal government to the weather that affects how and when we move.”

“I want to be very upfront and transparent about the fact that given the volume of challenges that we are trying to confront, there is, to some degree, some physics that play a part with regard to just how quickly we can move,” Murphy said.

Murphy added that K-Lo staff had contacted “100 percent of the families” about their choice for fall 2025 enrollment. While 32 students have chosen to participate in a special lottery across the district, the remaining students will be sorted into the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and King Open schools based on their grade.

At the meeting, Cambridge Education Association President Dan Monahan said that while there have been “some initial agreements for educators on the impact of the closure,” they have not yet discussed the reassignment of teachers.

“I urge you to move with all expediency to resolve these issues, because I hear deep uncertainty from many educators, which is both unsettling to them as well as reason for them to look to positions elsewhere,” Monahan said.

In interviews with The Crimson, K-Lo parents said the transition has not adequately involved parents and students.

Jia-Jing Lee, parent of a third grader at K-Lo, wrote in an email that she felt the district was not living up to their initial statement of having more freedom of school choice, as students are only guaranteed a spot at MLK or King Open.

“During the few caregiver community meetings with the superintendent, he assured us that the district would review each student’s data and work with families to determine the best school placement for each child,” she wrote. “However, we have not seen this happening at all.”

Murphy wrote in an email statement that students participating in the lottery were able to speak to staff at each school and to make a choice amongst available seats.

“If any individual family feels their child may require a specific accommodation in the course of this transition, families are again urged to bring this to the attention of the Kennedy-Longfellow team,” Murphy wrote. “The efforts by the district to respond to individual family needs will be ongoing throughout this transition.”

“The district has and will continue to be fully responsive to family needs when they are brought the attention of school staff,” he added.

While the district solicited volunteers on Jan. 22 to join an advisory and steering committee on the K-Lo transition, Lee wrote in her email that committees are not making meaningful progress.

“It now appears that the superintendent is not moving forward with this, as his staff is handling the transition instead,” she wrote.

“Instead of prioritizing administrative convenience, the district should be genuinely serving each and every K-Lo student—as well as all students across the district—by ensuring proper placements that truly meet their needs,” Lee added.

CPS did not respond to a request for comment on the current state of the committees.

Kate I. Whelan, parent of a K-Lo fourth and fifth grader, said she worries that the transition would not solve — and only worsen — the issues that lead to the closing of the school.

“They’re saying the reason for the closure is that the kids have effectively not been treated equally because of a number of things that have happened,” she said. “But it feels like the result of that is that they’re not going to treat the kids very fairly.”

“The thing you need to do is to make sure that doesn’t happen anymore, right? Rather than further disrupt kids that you’re saying have already kind of negatively impacted,” Whelan added.

In the statement to The Crimson, Murphy affirmed the dedication and professionalism of K-Lo teachers and staff.

“The challenges experienced by the Kennedy-Longfellow School are largely attributable to the systemic conditions under which the district has operated the school,” he wrote.

Anne M. Coburn, parent of a kindergartener and a K-Lo fifth grader, said that educators at K-Lo “took on a huge, huge portion of the work” to contact families and “are doing an amazing job under painful, painful circumstances.”

“They have to contact all of these kids and say, ‘Okay kid, we’re going to send you off into the rest of the district, right away from us. We’ve done our absolute best to protect you, to treat you softly, at a time when you are really not feeling soft,’” Coburn said.

“The character that that shows is profound,” she added.

As Whelan navigates the transition with her family, she said it is a “real shame” that the students are leaving a school that has given “a lot of kids a real positive experience.”

“It would be, I think, very positive to keep as many of the staff — like go with them if they want to as well — so they just have some kind of continuity of care, given that everything else around them is changing,” Whelan said.

— Staff writer Ayaan Ahmad can be reached at ayaan.ahmad@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @AyaanAhmad2024.

— Staff writer Claire A. Michal can be reached at claire.michal@thecrimson.com.