Committee adopts resolution on ICE safe zones

School Committee · Meeting of August 11, 2026

NORTHAMPTON — The Northampton School Committee voted unanimously to adopt a resolution declaring city schools safe zones from immigration enforcement. Member Amy Martyn moved to adopt the NACE-backed resolution and refer it to the Rules and Policy Subcommittee to draft formal policy, after teachers and resident Raymond Paquette testified that "people mean well, but meaning well doesn't mean anything unless there's a plan." Superintendent Anna Maria Azarloza, a month into the job, said implementation would begin "day one when school starts" and separately presented her first-year entry plan with coach Dr. Joseph Sawyer.

The committee also approved a one-year YMCA facilities agreement 9-0 and an updated Code of Conduct 9-0, but spent over an hour debating a possible shift to two meetings a month, with member Renika Montgomery-Tamakloe questioning why the body would be "paying them for one meeting" while taking on a second. A proposed rule letting the chair move disrupted meetings to remote-only format failed on a tie vote.

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Source: the School Committee meeting of August 11, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript. It was corrected where it differed.