NORTHAMPTON — Though it had only two competitive races on the ballot, the School Committee is set to look very different come next year.
Of the nine members who started following the previous election in 2023, only one member will remain following the results of Tuesday’s municipal election. That member is Mike Stein, who ran unopposed in this year’s election, although he faced a write-in campaign from Megan Wolf. Stein won by a vote of 571 to 466.
In Ward 2, Anat Weisenfreund defeated Angela Wack to retain her spot on the committee. Weisenfreund was appointed to the seat following Karen Foster’s resignation from the position in the middle of her term, and now will have the opportunity to serve a full term.
In her time on the committee, Weisenfreund spoke vocally of a greater need to support the city’s schools, aligning with proponents of higher school spending such as the advocacy group Support Our Schools. Stein has also aligned himself with the SOS group.
“I think our movement to prioritize central services is well on its way,” Weisenfreund said in an interview on Tuesday following election results. “We didn’t win everything, but I’m very pleased with my own win and thrilled that Mike Stein won.”
The other competitive race was for two at-large seats, which featured a three-way race between Robbie Saner Sullivan, Tiffany Jewell and Emily Serafy-Cox. Sullivan and Jewell emerged as the two highest vote-getters, leaving Serafy-Cox, the current committee member for Ward 3, off the council.
They will be joined by fellow new committee members Alena Bartoli in Ward 1, Renika Montgomery-Tamakloe in Ward 3, Amy Martyn in Ward 5, Cynthia Mahoney in Ward 6 and Valerie Reiss in Ward 7. Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra, who chairs the school committee, will return after narrowly winning reelection against challenger Jillian Duclos.