April 7 – The Cambridge School Committee tonight voted 5-2 to select Dr. Jeffrey Young as its next Superintendent of Schools. The next step is to negotiate a contract. Voting for Jeffrey Young were Joe Grassi, Marc McGovern, Patty Nolan, Luc Schuster, and Nancy Tauber. Voting for Carolyn Turk were Fred Fantini and Denise Simmons.
This was one of the most intense meetings I’ve witnessed in a long time. Most of the people in the audience were very partisan supporters of either Jeffrey Young or Carolyn Turk, and there is no question that this partisanship was highly correlated with race. Indeed, once the vote was taken many supporters of Carolyn Turk marched out of the room shouting “status quo” even though the School Committee had, in fact, just voted to make a change from Interim Superintendent Turk to Superintendent Young.
Without a doubt the most devastated of all the School Committee members was Mayor Simmons. To this observer, it seemed she was doing everything she could just to keep herself together. Even though all members had pledged to work together regardless who was chosen, when Fred Fantini (who had also voted for Turk) made such a motion, Mayor Simmons voted “present”.
From my vantage point (and the luxury of not having to take sides on this matter) I will state that this was a very adult decision from this School Committee. This is not a comment on who they chose, but rather about the courage they showed in making their decisions based on what they really believed, regardless of political consequences. There will be some political and personal fallout as a result of this vote, but I can honestly say that my respect for all seven of them went up a notch or two based on their courage and convictions – regardless of who received their vote. – Robert Winters