Ward 2 forum highlights leadership, IEP fixes and local funding priorities
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Summary
Ward 2 candidates Anat Wiesenfreund and Angela Wack outlined their backgrounds and competing approaches to IEP remediation, district funding and leadership retention, with Wiesenfreund emphasizing systemic fixes and local revenue and Wack emphasizing classroom experience and operational policies.
Ward 2 candidates Anat Wiesenfreund and Angela Wack used a League of Women Voters forum on Nov. 3 to outline responses to a recent state finding about IEP failures and to describe priorities for superintendent selection, family engagement and district funding.
Anat Wiesenfreund, the incumbent on the school committee and chair of the budgets and properties subcommittee, described more than three decades of work on early-childhood and Head Start programs and said she moved to adopt a "strong budget" to ensure quality and compliance. "A vacuum of leadership has created a crisis, rifts in our community, and recently, NPS was found in violation of our legal obligation serving disabled children," she said, urging both local budget action and a stronger family-engagement policy.
Angela Wack, a teacher and parent who moved to Northampton from Florida, emphasized classroom and PTO experience and argued that leadership instability is a major driver of compliance lapses: "The school that was cited for the most deficiencies... had 3 principals in 3 years." She called for evidence-based literacy curricula and a focus on retaining principals and superintendents.
Both candidates supported clearer family engagement and an immediate focus on IEP remediation. They diverged on budget tactics: Wiesenfreund said Northampton's multi-year surpluses justify asking the City Council to opt in to increase school funding; Wack warned opt-in would simply reallocate existing funds and potentially harm underfunded municipal services.
On the superintendent search, both candidates urged experience with evidence-based curriculum, the ability to manage city–school governance tensions, and a concrete plan for staying in the district long term.
The candidates repeatedly returned to staffing, curriculum and community engagement as near-term priorities; beyond that, they said they would press for transparency, monthly CPAC presentations to the school committee, and a districtwide family-engagement approach if elected.
