Northampton inauguration ceremony set for Monday

The newest iteration of the Northampton city government will officially be sworn in on Monday, marking the next chapter for Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra and a wave of newcomers.

Sciarra will be sworn in for a second term after winning reelection by fewer than 100 votes to Jillian Duclos. The close result reflected ongoing divisions in the city over key issues such as school spending and the Picture Main Street project, with construction on the latter slated to begin during Sciarra’s second term.

In an interview with the Gazette in November following the election, Sciarra acknowledged her administration needed to do more work to be accessible to residents and to explain the financial calculations behind municipal policies in order to win more support among residents.

“We’ve been hearing that people want more information and more engagement, and we’ve been working on different ideas,” Sciarra said at the time. “I think we have a lot of work to do to better explain our positions and make our case about them.”

Also to be inaugurated on Monday are new and returning members of the Northampton City Council, a body that also went through an historic election that saw a total of 19 candidates and five preliminary elections before the final results were announced. New councilors will be sworn in during the ceremony — Gwen Nabad for Ward 1, Laurie Loisel for Ward 3, Aline Davis for Ward 5, Chris Stratton for Ward 6, and Meg Robbins for at-large. Stratton’s victory in Ward 6 means that for the first time in 28 years, Marianne LaBarge will not be a part of the City Council.

Councilors returning for another term in 2026 are Deb Klemer in Ward 2, Jeremy Dubs in Ward 4, Rachel Maiore in Ward 7, and Garrick Perry as the second at-large seat. The council will convene for the first time following the inauguration ceremony, at 2 p.m. for an organizational meeting to elect a president and vice president of the council.

Alongside the swearing-in of the mayor and City Council is the Northampton School Committee, the composition of which will look drastically different this term. Seven of the committee’s nine members did not seek reelection for the upcoming term. Only Anat Weisenfreund, of Ward 2, and Michael Stein, of Ward 4, will return to the School Committee.

Joining the committee this year are Alena Bartoli, Renika Montgomery-Tamakloe, Amy Martyn, Cynthia Mahoney and Valerie Reiss, representing Wards 1, 3, 5, 6 and 7, respectively. Tiffany Jewell and Robbie Saner Sullivan also will be inaugurated as the two at-large school committee members.

Other officials to be sworn in Monday include the trustees of Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School, trustees of Forbes Library, and the elector under the Oliver Smith Will.

The event begins at 10 a.m. at the Northampton Senior Center, located at 67 Conz St.

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