Prompted by committee members' questions on how the sibling provision would affect class size. Jennings said the schools might need to violate the 17-student cap if many siblings enroll at the school.

Under the current plan, the exemption from the racial quota and the class size cap will be phased out in five to eight years.

In the meantime, the district will recruit white students to bring the school into racial balance.

The merger "will keep a school in Area Four and create a school with attractions for white children," said D'Alessandro, referring to the Cambridge neighborhood where the Fletcher and Maynard are located, which has a higher minority population than some other areas of the city.

Committee members were divided on whether or not to send the proposal to the Fletcher and Maynard school councils--parents' associations, that is--to seek parental approval of the merger before the school committee gives its final approval of the merger.

"If we're afraid to go to the school council," said committee member Susana M. Segat, "then it's going to be a rough merger."

According to Jennings, the plan the committee approved last spring did not provide for the proposal to be voted on by school councils.