Some parents say it's a school where one ninth-grade class regularly watches "The Simpsons" in social studies class, where students snooze during their weekly advisory period, where they sit in temporary study halls for weeks while their schedules are worked out.

But others say it's a school where administrators are overcoming a culture of mediocre expectations and are demanding higher standards from students, where teachers are collaborating and getting to know students personally.

These two opposing views of Cambridge Rindge and Latin School came head to head in a pair of special school committee meetings over the past two weeks. Last week, intensely opinionated parents polarized around what they saw as the fallout of the school's recent redesign.

Last night, CRLS administrators told committee members they have recognized obstacles in redesign and are working to improve issues like scheduling for next year.

"We know we've just begun. The road is uneven," says Principal Paula M. Evans.

Before the redesign CRLS had a system of "houses," which featured different program sizes and teaching styles. Pilot, one of the houses, was an alternative program, while Fundamental, another of the houses, used more traditional approaches to teaching. Students could choose which house they entered.

The house system started in the early '70s. But by early this decade, the system was highly unpopular, heavily criticized for creating inequities between the houses and letting more affluent and white students succeed at the expense of poorer minority students.

In a plan approved by the school committee last spring, that system was abolished. This fall, CRLS opened with five equally sized "small schools," each with a dean of curriculum and a dean of students. Students are assigned to the houses at random. Then administrators switch around students to assure racial and economic diversity.