ABSTRACT
In the nearly ten years that have passed since I last spent time observing and interviewing in Cambridge, the educational “old guard” has all moved on. Long-term veteran of the system Superintendent Mary Lou McGrath left in 1997. She was replaced by Bobbie D’Alessandro after a national search-a search conducted by a younger, more “professional” school committee. The colorful but obstreperous “Al Vellucci’s” of the committee are gone-much to the relief of many Cambridge citizens who had long ago tired of some school committee members’ old-time politicking and occasional circus antics.
