NORTHAMPTON — There will be substantial turnover on the School Committee next term.
Five new members were elected to the 10-person committee in Tuesday’s election, which brought out 26 percent of the city’s voters.
In Ward 3, Emily Serafy-Cox beat incumbent Howard Moore 392 to 211, according to the unofficial results from the city clerk.
“I’m humbled that the residents of Ward 3 would entrust me with their spot on School Committee because there’s nothing more precious than our young people,” Serafy-Cox said over the phone while she celebrated her win at Joe’s Cafe on Market Street. “I’m so excited to get to work to make things better for our schools.”
“I’m disappointed — I would have loved to win,” said Moore, who has been on the committee for nine years.
But Moore said he’s going to make his last weeks on the committee count. “We’ve got the usual business: Support our employees,” he said, standing outside of HighBrow Wood Fired Kitchen + Bar on Crafts Avenue near City Hall, where many candidates and their supporters gathered Tuesday evening.
The committee’s two at-large seats were the only other contested races, with three candidates running: incumbent Susan Voss, an engineering professor at Smith College, and newcomers Roni Gold, a teacher in Springfield, and Katherine Cardoso, a corporate event planner.
Voss and Gold won the two seats with 3,959 and 2,495 votes, respectively. Cardoso came in just short of Gold with 2,274 votes.
On Tuesday evening, Voss said she was relieved to have been re-elected. “I’m glad they think I’m doing a good job,” she said of her constituents. “I’m also really thankful to all the people who ran. I think it gave us a platform to have conversations — that’s what I think we need to do more and more of.”
Several current committee members — Edward Zuchowski, R. Downey Meyer and Ann Hennessey — did not run for re-election. Though Molly Burnham’s name was on the ballot Tuesday, she dropped out of the race in September and couldn’t be removed from the ballot. Dina Levi won and will represent Ward 5.
Two School Committee newcomers ran in two other uncontested races. Sean Condon will be the Ward 4 representative, and Kaia Goleman will represent Ward 7.
“I’m really excited about all the fresh faces on the School Committee and City Council,” said Serafy-Cox. “I think that it’s a really exciting time in Northampton and a time for some real creative thinking to happen.”
Greta Jochem can be reached at gjochem@gazettenet.com.