Graham & Parks principal Kathleen Smith told staff at a June meeting that this will be her final year, said people who attended.
“I will be leading the school for one more year,” Smith said, according to an attendee whose account was confirmed by others in attendance. Smith redirected and ignored follow-up questions and has not spoken on the issue since, the staff members said.
The people with knowledge of the news asked for anonymity, reflecting the tension that has roiled the school since shortly after Smith arrived in 2022 as a hire by former superintendent Victoria Greer – who was ousted in 2024 by the School Committee in part due to complaints about hiring practices.
Asked about Smith’s future in the district, Cambridge Public School director of communications Jackie Piques gave an indirect response: “There is no change to principal Smith’s employment status; she is looking forward to another year of improved student achievement at G&P.” Smith did not reply to a request for comment.
The School Committee hasn’t been briefed on the upcoming change or presented with a timeline or information about a search process. This lack of communication and clarity is characteristic, said some at Graham & Parks, a 323-student elementary school at 44 Linnaean St., Neighborhood 9.
“It’s terrible. It’s not a joyful place,” said former Graham & Parks parent Anna Shin, whose daughter transferred out last year. Shin said she heard on the first day of school that this would be Smith’s final year, after asking another parent if they had updates on a situation she’d protested daily in 2024, standing across from the school every morning with signs expressing her upset with the principal and district.
The turmoil of Smith’s years as principal go on: She is being sued for disability discrimination by Sarah Heine, a former Graham & Parks volunteer and substitute teacher. In a lawsuit filed in November, Heine said Smith blocked her class assignments because Heine uses a wheelchair.
When Smith was an administrator in Newton, she was involved in another discrimination lawsuit that led to a $315,000 settlement to a teacher with fibromyalgia.
Early in Smith’s posting at Graham & Parks, some parents were upset to learn details about Smith that they felt should have prevented her from being hired. They found that in a previous principal posting in Newton schools, Smith was investigated and found responsible for creating a toxic work environment, leaving the system shortly after the report’s findings became known. A group called the G&P Caregiver Coalition said another toxic work environment was gripping their own school.
An external investigation in Cambridge concluded that there wasn’t “credible evidence” of a toxic workplace at Graham & Parks. Still, in retaining Smith in August 2024, superintendent David Murphy announced a series of measures to heal the school, including a “town hall” meeting, small group discussions with staff and parents and placement of a special adviser on campus to watch over it.
Lilly Havstad, a Graham & Parks parent upset over Smith’s hiring, said she joined the school council in an attempt to bridge factions at the school. In April, she resigned, writing that it was “with sadness and frustration” she’d concluded that after years under Smith’s leadership, “our school community is broken, with no pathway to healing in sight.”
