Parents Group Formed to Advocate for Students

As Cambridge searches for a new school superintendent and struggles to fill a $3.7 million shortfall in its annual schools budget, the newly formed Citywide Parents Organization (CPO) hopes to be an active defender of students' interests.

Created by two parents in November, the group aims to be an "advocate on behalf of all of the children in Cambridge public schools...and help students and teachers of different schools communicate with each other," says Catherine M. Sullivan '75, cofounder of the organization and mother of three children at the King School.

Approximately 200 people, including parents, teachers, students and community members, are involved in CPO, according to Sullivan.

"We have really tapped into a need and desire that people have to work together in a city-wide organization," says Mary Ann Hart, co-founder of CPO and a mother of three.

CPO also hopes to have input in the search for a replacement for School Committee Superintendent Mary Lou McGrath, whose term expires in June and who has indicated she will not seek a renewal of her contract.

"We would like to be a part of that [process]," Sullivan says.

The Cambridge School Committee has not yet ironed out the details of how the superintendent search will work, according to Jim Ball, director of public information for the Cambridge public schools.

Parents, teachers, students and administrators will be involved in the process, according to Ball.

"The whole city really gets involved in this search," says Ball.

The parents of CPO will have as much say in the search process as any other parents in the city, according to Ball.

It is unclear if a new superintendent will be selected by June or if an interim superintendent will be appointed, Hart says.

CPO also hopes to have influence in crafting the school system's budget for the upcoming academic year.

A projected $3.7 million deficit looms in the distance as the School Committee enters into the budgeting period.

School officials recently projected that they will have only $1 million available to pay for $4.7 million in new expenses for 1997-98, the Cambridge Chronicle reported.

At the last CPO meeting, "people expressed grave concerns about what a $3.7 million shortfall would mean," Hart said.

A CPO sub-committee focusing on the schools budget has yet to formulate ideas for possible ways to reduce the projected shortfall, Hart says.

"Perhaps we just need to get more money as a school system," says Hart, who suggests increases in state education funding.

E. Denise Simmons, vice chair of the School Committee, says that if CPO submits its suggestions for the budget in writing, "it would certainly be considered."

Another CPO subcommittee is currently reviewing a draft of a report, to be issued Feb. 25, prepared by four consultants hired by the School Committee.

Included in the report are suggestions to close or merge some of the city's elementary schools.

There are now roughly 900 empty seats in Cambridge public schools, according to Hart.

Approximately 8,000 students attend the 14 Cambridge public high school, including the city's only public high school, Cambridge Rindge and Latin.

The report also assesses the success of the system's school-choice program, which was designed to bring racial balance to the schools. The program allows parents to choose which schools their children will attend.

School assignments are then made based on parents' choices while keeping each school's racial composition within certain parameters, Hart says.

Roughly 20 parent organizations exist in Cambridge, including Parent Teacher Associations at most of the schools, says Simmons.

But those groups are all based in specific schools, while CPO is the only parents organization with members throughout the city, according to Simmons.

"I went to their first meeting," Simmons says. "It looks like they are an invigorated and empowered group of individuals."

Hart says the group formed with the hope that it would be important in the future, even after the current problems facing the system have passed.

"Irrespective of these specific issues this year, we need a citywide parents organization," Hart said. "It becomes urgent as we have these major things on the agenda this year."

Hart, a lobbyist on Beacon Hill, is a mother of three, including a sixth-grader at the Agassiz School.

Sullivan is the mother of a kindergarten, second-grade and fourth-grade student at the King School, where she also works as a temporary assistant teacher.