Council Appoints Panel to Locate Classrooms Site

The problem of what to do with Houghton School children while their new school is being constructed bounced back into the lap of the Cambridge City Council last night.

The School Committee last Wednesday approved the idea of building temporary classrooms for the children and asked the Council to appropriate the money for the classrooms is a suitable site could be found.

The Council appointed last night a three-man committee headed by Councillor Barbara Ackermann to try to find a site. Mrs. Ackermann said she understood that Acting City Manager Ralph J. Dunphy has been considering two sites--one on Harvard Business School property and the other on a City-owned field now occupied by an auto firm.

Declaration

After the committee was appointed, the Council asked Dunphy to prepare an appropriation to pay for the classrooms after a site had been found. Mrs. Ackermann, who introduced the motion, termed it a "declaration of intention to support the program." The Council should, she said, vote to approve the appropriation when Dunphy presents it.

Only one Councillor--Thomas W. Danehy--voted against the motion, but three--Edward A. Crane '35, Daniel J. Hayes Jr., and Thomas H. D. Mahoney--abstained from voting. "I never give my vote in advance by proxy," Crane said.

Cost Argument

Hayes expressed concern over the cost of the temporary classrooms (variously estimated at $300,000 to $470,000) and advocated putting the Houghton children in other schools throughout the city. Mahoney echoed the cost argument and said that pupils at the "racially imbalanced" Houghton School would benefit from going to other, more integrated schools.