At 7 p.m., most of Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS) was quiet as janitors washed the floors and the security guard caught up on his reading.

But in one corner of the sprawling building, a fierce battle was taking shape. Parents holding bright orange posters decried Superintendent of Schools Bobbie J. D’Alessandro as she presented her plan to close three of the city’s under-enrolled elementary schools.

They charged her with trying to destroy the traditions and cultures of Cambridge’s schools and purposely keeping parents out of the loop.

Then the debate turned personal.

On the defensive, the superintendent responded to the accusations.

“I think about it every night and I sleep very little,” she said.

A chorus of parents openly mocked her.

“Awww,” they called out in sarcastic sympathy.

Monday night’s meeting, billed as an information session for elementary school students and parents, showed where the big battle looms in local education this fall.

With enrollment in the district’s 15 elementary schools continuing its free fall, administrators say they must close three schools after this year or face financial crisis. But merger talk will pit school against school and parents against administration—making for an intense struggle in a city known for its contentious education debates.

“This is going to be one of the biggest things this district has done in the last ten years,” says school committee member Richard Harding Jr.

Divide and Merge

Within the last three years, two elementary school mergers have stirred up parental outcry but they failed to solve the district’s financial and educational problems.

Officials forecast that next year’s schools budget will run a $750,000 deficit, and they project continuing enrollment declines in the coming years.

According to D’Alessandro, closing three more schools and merging them with the rest of the system would save between $1.4 and $2 million the first year after the consolidation. Most of the savings would come from reducing staff, including 20 to 25 un-tenured teachers who would be laid off.