5.1. Regular Meeting Apr. 7, 2026

This is episode 1 of the coverage of the April 7, 2026 regular meeting of the School Committee. It covers public comment and the lengthy discussion prior voting on the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget (spoiler alert: the approved it).

Links of Interest

-Administrative-

Agenda (with links to all motions)

Superintendent presentations for the regular meetings remaining in the school year

-Budget Discussion-

Proposed Budget for FY27

Staffing graphic for King Open and MLK

Article about the BRYT program

Shore Educational Collaborative

School Improvement Plans

-Screen Time Motion-

American Academy of Pediatrics new screen time guidance

-Motion on School Councils-

School Councils Law

School Councils Handbook

School Committee Rules

Subcommittees

-Superintendent's Agenda-

City Employee Salaries

Curriculum and Achievement Subcommittee Meeting (March 19th)

-District Employees-

Chief Operations Officer: Damon Smith

Director of Data, Assessment, and Accountability: Jen Amigone 

Executive Director of Academics: Dr Heather Francis 

Director of Family and Community Engagement: Melissa Bolden

Our favorite first grade teacher and now children’s author: Inbal Alon

The website for this podcast is CSC30.com

You can contact the podcast by emailing CambridgeSC30@gmail.com

The School Committee email address is SchoolCom@cpsd.us

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Hello. I'm Jess Gutz. Welcome to School Committee in 30 Minutes or Less, the unofficial recap podcast of the Cambridge School Committee.

SPEAKER_04 0:16

Hey guys, this is Hannah Gutz Stark. In today's episode, my mom's going to talk about the April 7th, 2026 School Committee meeting. This was a really long meeting, lasting 4 hours and 40 minutes, so this is just part one. It will only cover public comment and the discussion of and vote on the superintendent's budget.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Thanks, Hannah. As she said, this was a long one and the agenda was absurdly packed. In addition to a 43-slide presentation on student assessments, there were 22 items on the agenda, including approval of the superintendent's budget, discussion of the screen time motion that was tabled at the previous meeting, a motion about school committee support of school councils, a motion about the youth risk behavior survey, the approval of a new private school, 13 contract, one notification of gift, three subcommittee reports, and a partridge in a pear tree. Just quickly before I get into it, I want to apologize for my delay in getting these episodes out. This one was a real doozy. Public comment was up first, and it was quicker than I expected. I had anticipated that more folks would want to weigh in on the budget and the proposed screen time moratorium. Even the local Channel 7 news was there. I assume this was because of the screen time motion, given the anti-Chromebook sentiment brewing in the press recently. There were four public comments. First, Valerie Lewis, a Cambridge parent, expressed her concerns about screen use in schools. Then, Chris Montero, president of the teachers union, said he was disappointed in the loss of in-building staff positions in the budget. He also suggested the screen time motion be referred to subcommittee to allow for educator input. Then, Anna Phalan, a CPS parent, spoke on the importance of a balanced and transparent approach to screen time. She wondered about the urgency of the moratorium motion. And lastly, Anna Shinn, a CPS parent, endorsed the motion for creating a school council subcommittee and urged school committee members to vote against the budget, saying there should be no funds for new positions in the central office. After public comment, Chair Weinstein proposed some agenda changes to bring a few items to the front of the meeting. Specifically item 2644, which was the vote to approve the superintendent's budget for the 2027 fiscal year, and item 2664, which was a motion by Member DePaulo Santos, Vice Chair Duby, and Chair Weinstein to establish a subcommittee and working group on school councils. Everyone agreed to make the agenda changes and thus began the discussion around the new budget. Just as an FYI, the 2027 fiscal year runs from July 1st, 2026 until June 30, 2027. This discussion lasted approximately one hour and fifty five zero minutes and veered way off from the budget at times. Because of this, I'm going to be a little creative in how I report on it. First, I'm going to flip things around and cut to the chase on the vote. The budget was approved. Second, I'm going to summarize the discussion by school committee member instead of as a straight chronology. I will also present the superintendent's answers to members' questions, but have really tried to keep it to only the relevant information. For his part, in addition to answering the committee members' questions, the superintendent's general statements on the budget were as follows. He believes the budget is consistent with the priorities that have been set by the committee on behalf of students, especially in terms of prioritizing highest need students and closing achievement gaps. He said several times that money is not our problem in Cambridge. The problem is in the execution. And now the school committee members in alphabetical order. Member DePalo Santos voted present on the budget. She had no questions for the superintendent, but noted that it is challenging as a new member to come onto the school committee in the middle of the budget process. She talked about the multiple moving parts currently happening within the district, including the creation of a new strategic plan, the new director of family engagement, and the recent motion to conduct 360 evaluations of administrators. She said she wants to give each of these a chance to develop and see how they impact the district. Her mind is on letting things play out whilst keeping an eye on accountability. Vice Chair Duby voted to approve the budget. She also had no questions for the superintendent. She acknowledged that the budget is not a perfect document, but rather a working agreement, and that voting for the budget is, in her mind, a vote of confidence in the superintendent and his administration. She noted that they are operating under an imperfect order of operations because they are approving the budget before completing contract negotiations and the strategic plan. She is hopeful they can work towards better timing in the future. Also in the future, she would like to see stronger transparency regarding how budget items directly align with district priorities. For her, what matters is what comes next and how this budget is enacted, given that many of the needed changes in the district are policy driven.

SPEAKER_05 6:23

Many, many, many of the values-based changes that we need in this district are policy-driven and can and should happen within the confines of this budget.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

He also mentioned the empty Spring Street building and wondered what resources would go towards it. He repeated his belief that there should be more than one family liaison at the high school, calling out CRLS social workers who he said he doesn't trust because they don't want to do hallway duty. This refers to a grievance that the union brought to the committee in the past, but I don't have a lot of information on it because grievances are not usually public and are handled in executive session. Anyway, his point was that he doesn't believe high school students are getting the guidance they need. However, all reservations aside, he does believe that Superintendent Murphy is the leader our district needs. Member Harding also had a handful of specific budget questions for the superintendent, including, what will this budget do differently than the budgets before this in terms of student achievement? He asked for clarification on the goal to more effectively use before school time and on the shore collaborative. He also asked how the budget supports the upper school algebra rollout and about teacher reserves, specifically how many positions there are in reserve. As to what this budget does differently, the superintendent named the upper school intervention system that will be modeled on the Bright System at the high school and housed at the Darby Vassal Upper School. The Bright System includes dedicated staff and a specific classroom for kids coming back to school after long absences to get targeted re-entry support. He also talked about the Shore Collaborative, which is a group of local school districts working together, pooling resources to help students who might otherwise require out-of-district placements. He noted that it is a lot of money up front, but we are lucky because the collaborative will be housed in Cambridge and he expects the costs to come down as more districts join in. His third example of something new was what he called a more rational staffing structure, which includes consistency across upper schools in terms of social workers and specific staffing formulae tied to enrollment. With respect to the before school time, the superintendent cited changing staffing structures such that there are paraprofessionals who will work different sets of hours. He also said something about using school improvement plan budgets that I didn't really understand, and he anticipates creating a stipend system for educators who get to buildings earlier. He talked about the buses, saying that he will do everything within his power to hold the transportation vendors accountable so that kids are not late to school, expressing his faith in Chief Operating Officer Smith to make it happen. Regarding the CRLS family liaison, the superintendent said that the total number of adults at the high school, especially those in student support positions, is highly favorable. He added that it doesn't really matter how many liaisons or employees there are if the employees don't take responsibility for family engagement, an expectation that he is looking to principals to enforce. As for eighth grade algebra, those investments were already made a few years ago. The superintendent suggested sticking with the adopted strategy in order to allow it to play out. And lastly, the teacher reserve in the budget is made up of three paraprofessionals. There had been a kindergarten teacher position that was originally not yet assigned to a school, but has now been assigned to the Baldwin School. Member Hudson voted against approving the budget. She directed all of her comments and her one question to the other members of the school committee. She said this was a genuinely challenging vote for her because it's hard to know if a budget meets your goals if the goals are not yet well articulated. She scolded the other members for not having worked harder or better on having put together a simple list of goals. She noted that the budget process, while long, has not been satisfactory because the school committee doesn't ask helpful questions of the administration. She stated clearly that she has complete faith in the administration and she rejected the idea that the newer members inherited a budget. Her one question was directed at Chair Weinstein, asking him when the committee will have a clear articulation of its goals. The chair replied that this will happen through the strategic planning process, which is currently underway. He said he didn't have the full timeline in front of him, but he could reshare it with her. Interestingly, even though Member Hudson did not direct her question to the superintendent, he did address her statement by saying that while the committee may not have adopted a strategic plan yet, he believes there is consensus as to priorities, especially where literacy is concerned. Just as a side note, the superintendent has previously stated his intention to report on the strategic plan at the June 16th regular meeting. Before doing so, he asked the superintendent about two specific budget-related issues. He asked about the changes in staffing, specifically the loss of in-building staff as juxtaposed with the additional position at the District Administration Central Office. He also asked about Tier 2 supports. Just as a reminder, regular classroom teaching is Tier 1 instruction, and Tier 2 is more specialized support for students, and Tier III is more individualized specialized services. Member Jake Mark held up a point made by CEA President Chris Montero that if we increase intervention options but then take away classroom support like paraprofessionals, how can we be sure that we are fully capitalizing on the interventionist investments? Before I go into the superintendent's answers, I want to say a few things regarding the staffing changes and how they were reported and talked about, especially how the staff members from the now closed Kennedy Longfellow School were redistributed across the district. This is challenging to understand because this redistribution happened after the fiscal year 26 budget was adopted in the spring of 2025. So what that means is, when you compare the fiscal year 26 and fiscal year 27 adopted budgets, a school that received many students and staff members from the Kennedy Longfellow School looks like it gained a lot of staff. But when you compare the fiscal year 26 adjusted budget from the fall of 2025 to the newly adopted fiscal year 27 budget, you would conclude the opposite, because the adjusted budget counts the staffing changes that happened as a result of the school closure. Here are the numbers from the MLK school as an example. In April of 2025, the fiscal year 26 budget was adopted. It included 75.2 full-time employees or FTEs for that school. When the new school year began that fall in 2025, the adjusted number of FTEs at MLK became 82.04, a 6.84 increase, presumably to help with the influx of students. Then, last week, when the fiscal year 27 budget was adopted, it allowed for 80.54 FTEs. One might conclude from both logic and the budget document that going from 82.04 to 80.54 is a loss of 1.5 FTEs. But the argument that the superintendent made was that the difference that counts is actually the difference between the two adopted budgets. So the move from 75.2 to 80.54, which is an increase of 5.34. If you are a visual learner like me, you can check out the explanatory graphic I have linked in the show notes. I present these numbers without judgment. They are just the facts. I'm giving them to you all mostly because a person can feel pretty crazy looking through the budget document that says the MLK school staff will be decreased by 1.5, and then hearing the superintendent say it has actually increased by 5.34. The best way I've been able to conceptualize this is that on paper, compared to this time last year, the MLK school is gaining positions. But in the day-to-day life of the school, compared with this school year, they are losing positions for next year. I've not had the same success figuring out what Superintendent Murphy meant when he said the district is only losing four paraprofessionals. I get that it makes sense to have fewer paras after a school was closed. I just haven't found exactly where that number comes from yet. But that's on me and I will keep digging. Anyway, the superintendent felt that a decrease of four paras is not a big deal. He also said that CPS has an unusually large staff, and with that investment there should be higher expectations, higher standards, and better execution. He said that a large bureaucracy like CPS needs to be run well, and adding the new data position is key to that happening. As for Tier 2 supports, the superintendent said that while tier two and three supports are important, some of our Tier 1 instruction is not as good as we are claiming it to be. And we cannot be a district that attempts to intervene our way into greater achievement. He believes the district needs to focus on better Tier I instruction. Which led Member Jay Kamar to ask again. For specifics on Tier 2 supports, he pointed to the fact that full-time ELA and math interventionists will now be standard at every single school, and additional ELA interventionists will be deployed where there is the most need. He said they are expanding high-dose tutoring and prioritizing the appropriate professional development. Mayor Siddiqui voted to approve the budget. She stated briefly at the start of the discussion that she felt good about this budget because it isn't just the same budget they started with in the fall, and she appreciated the tremendous amount of work that went into being responsive to and incorporating feedback. As the discussion dragged on, she chimed in again to emphasize that a great deal of the budget is fixed costs that need to be maintained. She suggested going ahead and voting on the budget, saying, We can vote it down, but then I'm going to ask what is the alternative?

SPEAKER_02 19:10

Because it does need to go to the city council.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Finally, Chair Weinstein, as the master of ceremonies, had a lot to say because he tried several times to sum up various points made by the superintendent or to make sure that members had their questions actually answered. At the start, he gave a few comments about the long and thoughtful budgetary process and he thanked all involved. He noted that the budget is just one piece of the work of the school committee. He said he was proud and appreciative of the investment Cambridge makes in its schools and grateful the district is so well resourced. Like many of us, he sought clarity on the situation involving previous staff members of the Kennedy Longfellow School, concluding, as confirmed by the superintendent, that nobody was laid off as a result of that school closure. Rather, employees who chose to stay were reassigned within the district, and that the seeming loss of staffing is really a result of former staff choosing not to stay on in a district that no longer needed them. He also endorsed the new data position at the central office, expressing his faith in the administration to make necessary changes to move the district forward towards its goals. He came back to the importance of the strategic plan and how excited he is that the process is now underway. And he noted, even though he thought this was a good budget cycle, he will be looking for improvements next year.

SPEAKER_08 20:42

He concluded, you know, we need to work together with all these resources, with all these people, to make the future that we want for our kids happen.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

Phew. That was a lot. And I also know it leaves some questions unanswered. But I do still have two quick details to add that may not have been conveyed in the meeting video. First, it was tense. When the chair invited members to speak, nobody wanted to take the lead. I even saw some members make eyes at each other as if to say, you go first. It was weird. Second, when it came time to vote, Member Hudson, who had stepped out of the room, asked the Secretary how Member Harding had voted before she entered her vote. To wrap it up one last time, the final vote was four yeses, Vice Chair Duby, Member Harding, Mayor Siddiqui, and Chair Weinstein, two no's from Member Jay Kamar and Member Hudson, and one present from Member DePalo Santos. And thus concludes Part 1. You can listen to part two right away to hear about the rest of the meeting. I split the meeting into two episodes because it is my absolute number one goal with this podcast to make meetings like this one more accessible and help the public be informed without being overwhelmed. I hope I achieved that. Relatedly, because I have been asked this question, I want to state definitively that I will not be running for school committee in 2027. This podcast is not a long-term campaign strategy. I promise. The next regular meeting is on May 5th. Until then, I'll be working on some episodes on public comments, subcommittee meetings, and all of my opinions, including what to look for in school committee members when you are voting next year. You can send any feedback to Cambridgesc30 at gmail.com. As I just said, I have a lot of opinions, and I'm going to share them for sure. But today I'm going to wrap up with a delightful little announcement, especially for those whose lives include beginning readers. My kids' beloved first grade teacher Imbal Allen will be releasing her first picture book on April 28th. This book is called Maddie's Towers, and it tells the story of a child managing disappointment in friendship and carefully rebuilding her trust in herself and her friends. I've read it, and I think it's a great book that definitely reflects Miss Inball's gentle, thoughtful, and caring approach to teaching. If you know Miss Imball, you know she always knows exactly what to say to kids in a way that's meaningful to them. I have linked to her website in the show notes. Thanks for listening.