School Committee Candidate, Ward 2
Website: electanatweisenfreund
Guest Column: Why I’m running for Northampton’s Ward 2 School Committee seat
Local News: Head Start Director to fill vacant post on school committee
Unscripted Community Conversation
Bombyx Center for Arts & Equity
October 24, 2025
Video Clip – Question to candidates: Most of you probably share the view that the city can afford to move a good chunk of money into the school budgets that we’ve been underestimating research. I think that’s a big reason why all of you are up there and many of us are here. My question is: what happens if that can’t or doesn’t happen.? How do we galvanize this electricity in the air around taking care of our schools better? Everyone is serious about it, and I think there’s this energy that we haven’t seen in the city in a long time. Feel free to answer it one of two ways – either what else can we do, or just, how do we do a combination moving forward – maybe healing some of the disagreements and finding ways to just address the issue, even if we cannot do it via moving recurring 2.7 million year- over-year.
“It’s a really good question. It’s a difficult, difficult question, right? It goes to the heart of the matter. I’ve been on the school committee since January and I’ve worked my entire life with children and families and big systems and solving big problems and difficult issues.
And I have to tell you, I feel like I’m constantly recovering from being stunned at how poorly we are listening to families and teachers. We’re saying a lot of words and we’re doing a lot of math and we’re talking a lot of buckets and budgets. But it’s not really about that. It’s really about a commitment to prioritize the development of our youngest and most vulnerable citizens who do not vote, who have very few rights, and who need us as grown-ups to stand up for them and to do the damn right thing. That’s what this is about.
I also just want to say I’m so happy to be with all of you, my friends, in this beautiful place, and thank you for coming and organizing this. I’m so happy we have a chance to talk a little bit more freely. But – you know – I made a note here because I’m thinking about this 24-7 now.
My note says:
The project of fixing our schools has the potential to bring us all together, because fundamentally what we have to do is learn to value our relationships. We have to value the relationships between children and parents, between parents and teachers, between children and teachers, between the administration and teachers. All learning and all development happens in the context of relationships, in the context of empathy and respect and being able to take perspective.
I haven’t said this before (and then I’ll pass it along. I’m sure my time is up) I’m not out here attacking the mayor, but I was really upset about something recently. Because when I read her answers to the SEPAC committee – who asked everybody to respond to what they would do – it was like she made a turnaround. She said, ‘Well, we have to fix it. We have to work together and we have to do this.’
I’m like, the parents have been telling you for years. They have been standing up there crying, begging you to lead, to listen, to believe them. And that’s not happened here. So there’s some fundamental things that we have to shift. You’ve got to vote. You’ve got to bring some right people in.”
Question to candidates: People are moving out of Northampton or taking their children out of the school district and many teachers are deciding to retire early. Is there a point where balancing the funding needs of children with special needs will be better supported along with classroom and district needs?
“I think underlying your question is a fact that we have – I work in early childhood; I run the Head Start program for Community Action – I have seen the needs of children, birth to five, get more intense year after year after year. Right now, over half of our infants and toddlers have special needs and 30% of our preschoolers have developmental disabilities and those kids go to public school, obviously, right?
There’s a larger question about what’s going on with our kids and what’s going on with our families and what are the kind of stressors that our families are in. Economic stressors, social stressors, emotional stressors. Our families don’t receive the support in our society that they need. So there is that larger question underneath what you’re saying.
In terms of inclusion, I look at it a little bit differently because I think, I mean it’s a theoretical question – what you’re asking – because it is what it is. The kids are who they are and it is our job and responsibility to make our environments maximally loving and inclusive and supportive. I feel, and again this is my opinion, that we learn a lot from that, because when you make accommodations – or I I don’t even talk about it like that – but when you make spaces, when you make schools, when you make learning environments spaces where all children can thrive, it teaches all the children about humanity. It teaches all the children about love. It teaches all the children about their own strengths.
I’m not saying it doesn’t take enormous resources and it does. That’s real. And we as a city have got to make a decision to do that.”
Northampton Open Media – Candidate Statement
October 8, 2025
NHS Student Union – Municipal Forum
September 29, 2025
“My name is Anat Weisenfreund. I’m the – since January – the current school committee member. I’m running to be elected in November because I know how important early experiences are in shaping our children’s future and because I am concerned about the well-being of our children, caregivers, and staff in our district due to years of underfunding and lack of strategic and collaborative vision.
I think you should elect me to continue in this position because in my many experiences as a student, leader, mentor, and advocate working in large and complex child serving systems, I’ve already demonstrated that I can help solve the key issues impacting us today.
In this election, some people have said that we should behave like our children are watching. And I agree 100%. And what I want our children to see is that we as a community do everything possible so that they have a future in which they thrive.
We all had someone or wish that we would have had someone who did that for us.”
Video Clip – With declining enrollment, what is one bold change you think our schools should make in the next 5-10 years to stay relevant?
“While it is true that enrollment is declining, we should be careful not to overstate it. Between 2021 and 2025, enrollment has decreased by 83 students, which is really just over 3%. And we don’t really know why enrollment is declining, so I think the bold piece is to find out – to collect the data on who is leaving and why.
Has there been a shift in demographics? Is rapid gentrification, forcing working class families out of Northampton? Are families dissatisfied with limited options produced by continued cuts to the school budget? Are families dissatisfied and made to feel unsure because of so much turnover and administration and leadership? Are families pulling their kids to send them to charter schools or has there been an increase in homeschooling?
It’s the answers to these questions that will inform our strategy and to remember that satisfied caregivers are the biggest promoters of our schools. We need to hold exit interviews with families. We need to ask them. What is it that you wanted that you didn’t get? What is causing you to seek other options? We have to do the work to understand the data and we have to develop a robust family engagement strategy. “
Video Clip – Do you believe our city’s discourse around the school budget has been productive? And if not, how do you plan to move the conversation forward?
“We’re in the midst of a very challenging conversation in Northampton about how to use our resources. If you’ve watched and been to school committee meetings and city council meetings, we have seen caregivers, teachers, children rise up with passion and energy to protest the insufficient funding and the harm that this is inflicting every day. These are healthy and necessary responses in a democracy. It is a gift to us and we should show our respect and gratitude to each one of them who stand up and make their voices heard. And we need to listen to them and do our very best to make it better.
Yes, the conversations have been uncomfortable. They have strained relationships. But I agree with the mayor and many people here who’ve said they have been productive. As Angela said, more people understand the budget and the choices being made. People in the district who have felt marginalized for a long time are for the first time seen and heard and feel like they matter. And these conversations have in fact brought more resources to the schools. For example, the midyear appropriations of almost $300,000 and moving the mayor from a 4 to 5.88% budget, saving probably 20 jobs.”
Video Clip – It is no secret that our special education department has been under increased scrutiny this past year or more. How do you plan to improve our special education systems and service delivery?
“I have lots of experience in this area as a former Director of Early Intervention and as a former Director of Child Find for the City of New York. Over 40% of our district’s children are considered high-risk and about 700 or 25% have IEPs. As you know, DESE investigated our district as a result of a serious parent complaint and found us in violation of state law in a number of ways: not meeting IEP service delivery, not tracking misservices, not having the proper licensed personnel to deliver some of the services. Don’t get me wrong. I mean, these are civil rights violations and they are a direct result of insufficient school funding, as parents have been telling us.
Here is what I’ve already done in my role as school committee member: ensuring that this is brought to the agenda for ongoing discussion, ensuring accountability and oversight. We have brought before us the Director of Student Services to tell us what it will take to implement the necessary fixes. dug deep into the Case Report created for our schools that discusses the strengths and challenges of our special education program, and highlighted the necessity of a real family engagement strategy that can repair some of the deep erosion of trust that has been identified.”
Video Clip – At the June 2 Budget and Property Subcommittee Meeting, Anat Weisenfreund speaks about educators purchasing their own classroom and instructional supplies.
“We should actually have a policy that staff are not allowed to use their own funds to purchase classroom supplies or instructional supplies. That is a responsibility of our city. This is what our tax dollars are for. Nobody else has to buy their own supplies in the city. It is absolutely not acceptable. It is a practice that we should stop.”
Video Clip – At the June 2 Budget and Property Subcommittee Meeting, Anat Weisenfreund speaks about the use of “free cash” to fund needed resources in the schools.
“Since there is free cash available, I don’t understand why it’s not okay to plug existing holes – even if you call it one-time money. Because sometimes especially when it comes to people, if we can make people’s lives easier this year, even if we don’t commit to it for next year, then that gives us another year to think about how to do it next year. If the money is available – it is a very good position to be in to have free cash to make people’s lives easier now. And it buys us more time to think about how to make it recurring.”
Video Clip – At the April 10, 2025 School Committee Meeting, Anat Weisenfreund speaks about the importance of a strong school budget and challenges the binary that meeting the needs of children and families will weaken the city.
“I’ve heard and read extensive testimony from our constituents, including tonight children, families and staff who prepared their remarks and came and spoke so clearly and passionately about what they believe and what is important to them.
Thank you to each one of you.
Overwhelmingly, our constituents are asking us to pass a strong budget so that there’s finally some relief and so that children and families and staff can get back to having the necessary resources that make our schools.
Productive and joyful places of learning.
Before I make a motion, I would also like to say that I do understand that implementing the strong budget will require rethinking of the city’s current budgeting priorities and strategies, and will require the work of collaboration and innovation with all of us.
I do challenge the binary that has been created that meeting the needs of children and families will weaken our city.
On the contrary, I believe that it is only when we strengthen our schools that our city will continue to thrive.
With that, I make a motion to approve the strong budget of $46,000,610 ninety and direct the Superintendent to advocate for the necessity of the strong budget to meet our current needs and district goals in her presentation to the City Council.”