Quaverly Rothenberg For Ward 3

Below is the convocation speech by the head of the teacher’s union, who initially was told she would not be permitted to speak.

The mayor, on the other hand, *was* scheduled to speak but no-showed.

Community members shows up to this early morning meeting with signs saying how much they appreciate teachers.

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Good morning, everyone,
I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you all today. Thank you NEF and VINS for always supporting our educators! For those of you that don’t know me yet, I am Andrea Egitto. I teach kindergarten at Ryan Road school, and I am the president of the Northampton Association of School Employees. That is all of us!

I want to wish you all a happy new year! Welcome to all our new staff, you have joined a district where we support each other every day! Our association is made up of administrators, licensed staff, para educators, clerical members, custodians, cafeteria workers, and bus drivers. Every one of you has important work to do that impacts the lives of our students every day! So welcome and let's celebrate our new year filled with hope and joy!

As Dr. Bonner said, last year was a difficult one. I am going to name the elephant in the room. We lost many valuable members of our school communities and the fear and worry that many of you experienced was real and has created deep wounds. We will support each other as we heal these wounds, and as we overcome the gaslighting and the insults to our profession and our passion!

We will stand together and support each other, our students, and school communities even when it's hard, but don’t let anyone silence you when it comes to advocating for them! Speaking up doesn’t make you aggressive. Speaking out doesn’t make you rude. Speaking the truth doesn’t make you divisive. It makes you an advocate for what you know is best for your students.

One of the things that makes Northampton strong is the wide range of educators and staff. In this room, we have people just starting out and people that have been here for a long time.

Shout out how many years you have been in the NPS. . .

1 day, 30+ years and everything in between. We are going to do the hard work because that’s what we do. We are Northampton Public Schools, we will continue to do the hard work, show up for our students and each other, everyday! That’s who we are! We don’t need to be quiet, we don’t need to change our advocacy. We need to continue to do what we do best! Show up and do the hard work for our school communities and pull in everyone that wants the same.

Many of you will walk into unreasonably large classes this year. We will continue to advocate for small class sizes. Many of you will not be able to get the intervention or the support your students need. We will continue to advocate for interventionists and counselors in each building at every grade.

Many of you will object to unreasonable assessments, we will continue to advocate to not take up valuable learning time with developmentally inappropriate assessments and we will vote in November to remove the MCAS graduation requirement and soon MCAS altogether. Many of you will start the year with new administrators. We will welcome them into our school communities and work together with them to make our schools better each day.

We transform every year when we come in fresh after learning and rejuvenating over the summer, when we face a new group of students with new gifts and challenges, and when we work with new colleagues.

Every year requires transformation and we do it with joy. We are Northampton Public Schools and we’re still here and no matter what people say we will never stop showing up for our students.

I couldn’t do this work without our amazing team of NASE leaders please stand as I call your name:

Vice President Heather Brown
Secretary Vanessa Coates-Cooney
PR&R Chair Sara Churchill-Winsor
Membership Coordinator Karen Schiaffo
Communications Paula Rigano-Murray
Unit A -NPS Licensed Staff
Kate
Fontaine
Unit C - ESPs Paula Rigano-Murray
Erica Lamanna
Unit E - Clerical Tammy Cook
Unit F - Custodians Brian Bagdon
Unit G - Cafeteria Kim Bowler

Delegates for each building please stand! BSS, JSS, JFK, Leeds, NHS, RR

Thank you all for the work you do. Have a wonderful year and know you can reach out anytime you need anything.

I am so thrilled that the work that we advocated for starting during the pandemic in anti-bias, anti-racist education and restorative practices will continue this year and what better way to start the year than with a presentation from our own students!

Thank you and have a great year!

Northampton supporters of public schools are featured in this very thoughtful analysis of the national, state, and local school funding battles — and solutions! Keep going, everyone 💫

(Whew! What a whirlwind the first quarter of my council term has been. It is an honor to represent Ward 3!)

A New Wave of Pro-Public-School Organizing Right-wing efforts to undermine public schools are designed to shock the public into permanently lowering our expectations for what public schools can be. Those efforts may be backfiring.

Submitted to the state legislature today:

My name is Quaverly Rothenberg, and I am in the incoming Ward 3 city councilor for Northampton, in Western Massachusetts. Ward 3 has the highest concentration of renters in Northampton; and so the concerns, interests, and needs of renters are important to me. My understanding is that rent control is popular among voters here and that our greatest obstacle is a prohibition of it by the state. Northampton is largely a service economy, and it is increasingly becoming the case that workers here cannot afford to live in our city. Activists in favor of renters' rights are becoming more and more organized, and I foresee this being a major issue for our city government, yet we are not currently empowered as officials to answer any call to action on rent control. In our prior election for Ward 3 city councilor, the runner-up ran on a platform of renters' rights and had an unprecedently strong showing of support at the polls. In a small city where the status quo typically wins 5/6 of the vote, this outcome was to 2/3. Please help city officials in Northampton and elsewhere explore options that our constituents favor strongly so that we can ensure our community and economy remain intact. I ask you to support, as I do, H.2103 and S.1299.

Honored to have the endorsement of current Ward 3 councilor and city council president Jim Nash! Hear it by clicking on the link below.

quaverlyforward3.com

Meet the Candidates for Northampton City Council Northampton has contested races for at-large and Ward 3 councilors.

https://www.thereminder.com/localnews/northampton/northampton-ward-councilor-candidates-state-their-/

Northampton ward councilor candidates state their cases NORTHAMPTON — The biennial municipal election in Northampton is less than a month away, which means it is time to preview City Council candidates.

This is a great little group that hosts monthly open meetings with their city councilor and usually quarterly meetings with the mayor. State legislators are happy to drop in as well. We look out for our schools, our roads, our friends in need, and all things Ward 3. Come and say hello at our annual party!

The Division of Community Care is open! Bring any concerns about health, safety or stability and receive support free of charge.

No identifying information or insurance required. Open M-F 8:00 to 4:30. Staffed by compassionate community responders and nurses.

Call or text 877 DCC 0413
Email [email protected]
Walk in at 1 Roundhouse Plaza
Chat with responders around town (teal shirts)

https://www.masslive.com/news/2023/08/she-could-have-been-northamptons-only-councilor-in-public-housing-why-did-she-drop-out.html

She could have been Northampton’s only Councilor in public housing — why did she drop out? Jo Ella "Jada" Tarbutton-Springfield was in a contested race for Ward 3 councilor of Northampton.

Brought one of my kids with me to pull nomination papers for Ward 3 City Council. (We found a gum ball machine in city hall!) Excited to take this next step in civic participation and to share that with my children too. Let's all find ways to help Northampton succeed!