NORTHAMPTON — Voters returned three incumbents and elected one newcomer to the Northampton School Committee in voting Tuesday.
Committee members Molly B. Burnham, Lonnie Kaufman and R. Downey Meyer won new two-year terms, while newcomer Susan E. Voss also won an at-large seat.
The election for the Ward 6 School Committee seat pitted Kaufman against Thomas Davidson, replaying a competition that began earlier this year when Thomas Baird resigned his seat and a combined meeting of the committee and the City Council voted 10-7 to appoint Kaufman over Davidson.
Kaufman ended up with 543 votes to Davidson’s 430.
Both candidates work in education and have served on the Ryan Road school council. The implementation of a plan to integrate special-needs students more fully into mainstream studies with help from a co-teaching approach was raised by both candidates. Kaufman said he hoped it would reduce disciplinary referrals and Davidson said it needed to be given the proper support to succeed.
“It’s my first ever public campaign,” Kaufman said. “I feel tremendously relieved and happy.”
The co-teaching and student inclusion models were also a major issue in the Ward 7 School Committee race, and concerns about how they are being implemented was a major factor that prompted Elena Daniell to enter it as a write-in candidate toward the end of October. Daniell, a stay-at-home mother of a special-needs child, said she put her name forward to provide a voice for both special education and early education on the School Committee.
Meyer is the second-longest serving member of the School Committee. A major concern he voiced during the campaign is the budget deficit that Northampton schools may soon face, and how to avert it. He also said that he felt the adoption of the inclusion model was a step toward addressing issues with inequality throughout the the American educational system.
Meyer ended up winning 729 to 135.
Ina Iansiti was also prompted to enter a School Committee race because of concerns with the rollout of the inclusion model, choosing to enter as a write-in candidate for one of the two at-large School Committee seats last month. The mother of two daughters with autism, who substitute teaches and works at the afterschool program at Bridge Street School, Iansiti expressed deep dissatisfaction with the rollout.
Incumbent and children’s book author Burnham, meanwhile, said she was satisfied with the rollout overall, although she said that she appreciated families coming forward with problems that they’d faced. She said that issues with the rollout were being worked on, and that the model was a matter of social justice.
Voss, who ran for the committee for the first time, spoke about supporting students no matter what field they are interested in going into. An engineering professor at Smith, she said she was inspired to run when she heard students from other countries remark how scientists and engineers were commonly leaders in their homelands, and how this is not the case in the United States.
In initial results, Burnham had 4,236 votes, Voss won 4,342 votes and Iansiti garnered 51 votes.
“I’m very excited to be on the School Committee and try to start making a difference,” said Voss.
Iansiti said she enjoyed campaigning, and that her goal had been to get 25 votes, a goal she reached when Precinct 4B reported.
“Hey, 25, I made it,” she exclaimed.
She said she will run again, and that she will be on the ballot then.
“In the meantime I’ll be going to the School Committee’s meetings and being a presence and a voice,” she said.
Outside the polls, voters had a number of thoughts about what the School Committee should tackle going forward.
Allyson Bunch said she is largely happy with the School Committee, but she would like the full committee to meet with the teachers union to discuss the full-time release of its president to serve union members’ needs.
Mary Beth O’Connor said the School Committee needs to work on the co-teaching model. “It’s a really good idea but it needs … quite a bit of fine-tuning,” she said.
Mary Rothermich, who teaches college at Western New England University, said she has been deeply distressed at the reading and math skills she’s been seeing with her students. She said she would like this to be addressed at the lower levels.
“Something’s not working quite right,” she said.