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Cambridge is gearing up for November’s School Committee elections, which will close out a two-year term marked by significant — and often contentious — decisions. Now, parents want a seat at the table.
Cambridge’s seven-member School Committee, which shapes education policy across the district, is facing its liveliest race in years. Eighteen candidates — the most in two decades — are competing for seats, with all but one incumbent running again. The majority of the 13 challengers are parents who are no longer content to sit on the sidelines.
Over the past two years, the current School Committee has presided over some of the district's most important and divisive changes, including the firing of a superintendent and the closure of a school. Last year, committee members voted to remove then-Superintendent Victoria L. Greer amid growing concerns about her management style, appointing interim superintendent David G. Murphy in July 2024.
Greer’s resignation received mixed reactions from the public, and many parents felt that they were left in the dark about the decision after receiving minimal communication from the district.
Lilly Havstad, one of the candidates and a CPS parent, said that Greer’s resignation was an “important moment that woke up a lot of people to the dysfunction in our School Committee and the district.”
The district is currently searching for its next superintendent, a process that has received considerable criticism from the public. Last month, the Cambridge Education Association — the union representing teachers and staff in the district — released a statement calling for the search to be restarted with more public input, and to vote in new committee members.
“It is clear we need to elect new School Committee members,” union leaders wrote.
During public comment at a School Committee meeting last week, nine residents — including four challengers — condemned the search process, many supporting the CEA’s request for it to be halted entirely.
Many challengers have said that Greer’s removal and the superintendent search reflects the current committee’s shortcomings — especially a lack of transparency, public trust, and meaningful engagement.
“Those three things have all contributed to the sense of a lack of transparency. And I think that’s the reason you see 18 candidates this year,” challenger Arjun K. Jaikumar said.
Months after Greer was ousted, Murphy recommended and facilitated the closure of the Kennedy-Longfellow School, which suffered from persistent under enrollment and under performance. CPS faced immense backlash after the closure, as K-Lo parents alleged the district failed the school and its majority high-needs students — English language learners, low income students, and individuals with disabilities.
Both Anne M. Coburn and Jia-Jing Lee have children who attended K-Lo before its closure — an important motivating factor in their decision to run.
“Watching Kennedy-Longfellow be ignored for years when it was the single most diverse school in the entire district in the entire state, with 85 percent high-needs students, it felt like now is a good time to start trying to act,” Coburn said. “I want to make the things I believe in happen.”
Another area driving challengers is the disparity in educational outcomes for high-needs students. Many felt that the closure of K-Lo highlighted longstanding inequalities in the district — the school served the highest percentage of high-needs students in the district.
Havstad said that as a district we need to take the rising disparities for high-needs children in the district seriously.
“We need to embrace all of this knowledge and expertise and data that we already have and change the way we are running this district, so that teachers have a voice, so that students have a voice, and so that families have a voice at the table,” Havstad said.
Coburn, Jaikumar, Havstad, and Lee all recommended that the School Committee host regular office hours where they are accessible to talk with district affiliates in an effort to increase transparency.
“Educators and families feel left out of the process, that there is a perception of a very top down culture in district leadership that people want changed,” Jaikumar said.
Elections will be held on Nov. 4.
— 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.
