{"id":102,"date":"2026-05-15T23:04:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T23:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cambridgemovinghub.com\/?p=102"},"modified":"2026-05-15T23:04:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T23:04:21","slug":"parents-push-murphy-for-answers-on-158-spring-street-ahern-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cambridgemovinghub.com\/?p=102","title":{"rendered":"Parents push Murphy for answers on 158 Spring Street, Ahern field"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>At a town hall-style meeting Thursday, parents pressed Cambridge Public Schools Superintendent Dave Murphy for specifics about what might go into the empty school building in East Cambridge.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/cambridgemovinghub.com\/?p=100\">Cambridge responds to shooting with resources, community events<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Around 50 community members, parents and caregivers, and district administrators attended the meeting with Murphy on the vacancy at the former Kennedy Longfellow School. It was hosted at the King Open School. School Committee Members Elizabeth Hudson, Arjun Jaikumar, Luisa de Paula Santos and Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui attended but did not participate in the conversation.<\/p>\n<p>Murphy gave a 40-minute presentation about potential long-term effects of the decision and a range of general options for the building:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>move an existing school<\/li>\n<li>merge two existing elementary schools into the space<\/li>\n<li>merge two upper schools<\/li>\n<li>create a school or Early Learning center<\/li>\n<li>preserve the building as swing space<\/li>\n<li>relinquish the building to the city<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>He then spent an hour answering questions about those options. Murphy almost immediately said he would not recommend using the building as a swing space or relinquishing it to the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Options pared away<\/h2>\n<p>In response to questions about the building\u2019s infrastructure, Murphy said 158 Spring Street is currently \u201coperational.\u201d \u201cWe did not close Kennedy-Longfellow because the infrastructure could not support a school community in the long term,\u201d Murphy said.<\/p>\n<p>Other options were pared away until finally, under questioning from a parent, Murphy expressed a preference for merging two schools or moving an existing school, adding that the building is \u201ctoo much of a valuable asset.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have some reservations about [creating a new school], because of the unknown implications with respect to the rest of the system,\u201d Murphy added.<\/p>\n<p>The meeting drew a number of parents with children at the Amigos School, the district\u2019s only K-8 school. One idea for the building\u2019s future is to move The Amigos School from its current home in Cambridgeport back to 158 Spring Street, which housed the Amigos program in the late 1990s, before it became a full-fledged school.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we were to relocate Amigos to this school or merge with another school and vacate the facility of Amigos, wouldn\u2019t that facility be better adapted to become an early learning center than this massive school?\u201d an Amigos parent asked.<\/p>\n<p>Murphy agreed, acknowledging the \u201cvisible inequity around the infrastructure of [some Cambridge] schools.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/cambridgemovinghub.com\/?p=98\">An AI walked into a bar in Cambridge and asked for a code drink. . .<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Amigos is overcrowded<\/h2>\n<p>Parents from Amigos expressed concerns about overcrowding and space issues in its current building, which has more than 400 students. The K-Lo building could hold more than 650 students. Amigos is highly sought after within the district\u2019s controlled choice system, but is not currently a \u201ctop three choice\u201d for parents enrolling children in kindergarten, Murphy said.<\/p>\n<p>The controlled choice system in Cambridge, which places students in schools based on family preference and socioeconomic status, will play a factor in the decision about the 158 Spring Street vacancy. \u201cThe levels of demand at our schools under the choice policy are heavily concentrated in a subset of our schools, and that\u2019s not healthy from an enrollment perspective in a school choice system,\u201d Murphy said.<\/p>\n<p>Kennedy-Longfellow had a programming focus on \u201chigh-need students,\u201d which the district defines as students who are low-income, English Language Learners, or have disabilities. The building\u2019s new programming will need to continue to serve those learners, Murphy said. He added that changes in the physical space would have to bring a \u201cprogramming benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Ahern field may not be turf<\/h2>\n<p>Ahern Field, the 2.6-acre green space next to the 158 Spring Street building, also came up at Thursday\u2019s meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Since the city announced plans to replace the field\u2019s real grass with artificial turf, several parents have banded together in opposition, citing environmental and health-related concerns. Murphy indicated the decision to use turf may no longer be final.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust based on my conversations, I think the city team agrees with you, and I think there will be more conversations about that,\u201d Murphy said.<\/p>\n<p>There will also be more conversations about the building, starting at the School Committee meeting this coming Tuesday, May 19. Murphy said there will also be more engagement sessions with the city and with East Cambridge residents.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, the building\u2019s fate is in the hands of the School Committee, after Murphy makes a formal recommendation to the committee. Murphy would not confirm a timeline for the process, but said it will likely be in use again before fall 2028.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/cambridgemovinghub.com\/?p=96\">Court appointed special advocates help foster children<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At a town hall-style meeting Thursday, parents pressed Cambridge Public Schools Superintendent Dave Murphy for specifics about what might go into the empty school building in East Cambridge. Read more Cambridge responds to shooting with resources, community events Around 50 community members, parents and caregivers, and district administrators attended the meeting with Murphy on the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,12,81],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-amigos-school","tag-education","tag-school-committee"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Parents push Murphy for answers on 158 Spring Street, Ahern field - Cambridge Moving Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cambridgemovinghub.com\/?p=102\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Parents push Murphy for answers on 158 Spring Street, Ahern field - Cambridge Moving Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At a town hall-style meeting Thursday, parents pressed Cambridge Public Schools Superintendent Dave Murphy for specifics about what might go into the empty school building in East Cambridge. 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