Northampton picks Azarloza for school superintendent role

In Massachusetts, the Northampton Public Schools district is one step closer to getting a new superintendent. The school committee agreed on a final candidate this week, though the selection did not come without controversy.
 
Nearly a year ago, the city learned current-Superintendent Portia Bonner was not planning to stick around once her contract ends in 2026.
 
A search for her replacement would kick into high-gear months later, and, this week, the committee made their choice: Annie Azarloza, the interim superintendent of the Unit 58 district in northern New Hampshire.

 “I don't believe in passive communication. I believe in two-way dialogue, and what that means is this: I'm going to have the educator advisory council that I mentioned and as far as community relationships, I want to have a family and community engagement roundtable,” she said during a public interview with the committee on April 28. “I've done that in my three prior districts and I've had great success with that, especially in highly engaged communities: they've got a lot to say, and I want to hear from them."

The other finalists interviewed were Bethany Silver, an assistant superintendent at Bloomfield Public Schools in Connecticut and Thomas Danehy, the executive director of Area Cooperative Education Services, a nonprofit in New Haven. Conn.
 
As Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra noted, Azarloza appeared ready to bring fresh energy to the job.

“She is clearly someone who relishes immersing herself in a community and understanding all aspects of a district and reworking or building what is needed for all learners,” the mayor said during Thursday’s meeting. “I also appreciated her interest in training and restorative practices and how she has built trust with caregivers, especially caregivers of students with special needs, by clear and dependable follow-through.”
 
Previously a chief academic support officer in Worcester, Azarloza has been in the Granite State for the past two years, serving as a superintendent in Rochester, New Hampshire, before parting ways last year and joining Unit 58, a more rural district covering several towns.
  
However, Azarloza’s candidacy was not without controversy. Former City Councilor Quaverly Rothenberg disrupted the committee meeting several times, calling attention to a report created during Azarloza’s time with the Rochester School District. 

“You didn’t read it! You didn’t [expletive] read it! She’s out of compliance with Title I!” Rothenberg interjected. “You didn’t even read it! You just listened to how she summarized it! She’s going to [expletive] our poor kids! Just like Karen Foster-Cannon did! Just like Portia Bonner did!”

That report appeared to be the product of a schism between the superintendent and school committee between 2024 and 2025, leading to the district hiring a third party to investigate.
 
Summaries of the report provided by the Foster’s Daily Democrat newspaper and other sources describe a strained relationship between the school committee and former superintendent, as well as allegations of her singling out employees, not properly informing the school committee of certain district business and other missteps.
 
As Northampton School Committee Member Valerie Reiss said, the report, which Azarloza fought to have released via court order, mostly cleared the candidate, and that while mistakes were made, the superintendent was also dealing with difficult circumstances.
 
“… it was incredibly brave of her - for me, in some ways, this strengthens her candidacy, because she has been fighting to have this report released, and that it's really important that she wants everybody to know what happened,” Reiss said. “… and I do see it as her defending her students in a difficult situation with some difficult colleagues, and it was incredibly challenging.”

The fight to release the results reportedly lasted months and also came up as Azarloza was applying for the Holyoke Public School superintendent post, where she was also a finalist.
 
Reiss noted she had read summaries of the report and did not yet have time to tackle its thousand pages. It led in-part to Rothenberg’s protest, and later, jeers during the final vote.
 
“The union didn’t support, just Kate Fontaine said she did,” Rothenberg claimed as she departed. “You guys are incompetent and you risk children’s lives, not your own!”
 
At least three school committee members shared some of the same concerns. Ward 3 member Renika Montgomery-Tamakloe noted the stakes were high, given that they were picking the next leader of a 2,400 student-district.
 
“I didn’t have time to read [the full report], but the parts that I read concerned me… and I'm not willing… people can get second chances, but this isn't a job for us to give people second chances for,” the committee member said. “You get one shot to do this. This is the most important vote we will take this term and for me, I don’t want someone that, rightly or wrongly, has a scandal attached to them…”
 
She also noted that during the search, few candidates from Massachusetts emerged – reportedly two – and that, ultimately, Northampton has work to do to mend its reputation as a district/city known for school budget fights often reaching fever pitches and administrators finding themselves alienated.
 
“People knew qualified educators that did not apply for this job because of the reputation that we got and because of the way we treat the admins that come,” Montgomery-Tamakloe said. “One of them described it as … ‘Northampton is not where I want to be,’ but… they didn't use nice words.”
 
She and two others voted for Danehy while one committee member voted for Silver.

WAMC notes that during her interview on April 28, Azarloza signaled she was aware that NPS faces its share of unique challenges, inside and outside of the classroom.

The candidate emphasized that she is all for transparency and not shying from challenges

“I was just at the family and community forum: I got hit with some tough questions and I like it! And when I get hit with tough questions, I'm going to be fully-transparent and so, for me, I like when they ask those hard questions, because it means they're invested in their community,” she said. “It also means that they want to be informed, because well-informed people make better decisions. And what I've learned is that it's a highly-engaged community. I thrive in those communities. I'm excited to be here, and I'm excited for the opportunity.”

Northampton is now expected to reach out to Azarloza and soon begin contract negotiations.

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A shortened version of this story aired on Friday, May 1, 2026. Some audio for this story was provided by Northampton Open Media.