Annie Azarloza Wants Northampton to Be a District Families Choose. Its Enrollment Has Fallen 319 Students Since 2014-15.

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT

The number Annie Azarloza inherited when she became superintendent of Northampton^↗ this summer is 2,382 students, the lowest count in twelve years of the state's published record. Her written answer did not treat that as a budgeting problem.

"Enrollment matters and I am paying close attention to the trend," she wrote in answer to questions from The MAEdTribune. "We'll be monitoring enrollment regularly rather than looking at it only during budget season. But I also think the conversation has to go beyond managing decline. One of the questions I am asking is: What would it take for Northampton Public Schools to become a destination district?"

The state's published files say why the question is live. The 2,382 figure is Northampton's total for 2025-26, the most recent school year in the Massachusetts record. That is 319 students fewer than the 2,701 it enrolled in 2014-15, a decline of 11.8 percent across twelve reporting years, and it is the lowest count anywhere in that window. Counts for the current school year will differ once the state publishes them.

Every one of those years closed before Azarloza arrived. She wrote in August that she began serving as superintendent of Northampton Public Schools on July 1, 2026, and the district's administration roster lists her in the job with no interim or acting qualifier. The record above is the baseline she took on, not a result she produced.

Twice the state's rate

Enrollment fell across most of Massachusetts over the same period, which is why the comparison matters more than the raw line.

Across the 385 districts that published a total in every one of those twelve years, enrollment fell 5.6 percent. The median district in that group lost 5.8 percent, and 67 percent of them ended lower than they started. Northampton's 11.8 percent is roughly double the typical figure, and 136 of the 385 districts fell further still. This is not the state's most severe decline. It is a steeper one than most.

The most recent published year is the sharpest of them. Northampton lost 114 students between 2024-25 and 2025-26, a fall of 4.6 percent and the steepest single-year percentage drop in the twelve years the files cover. By headcount it ranks second, behind the 119 students the district lost in 2020-21. The 385-district group fell 1.7 percent in that same year, so Northampton's move was well ahead of what the rest of the state did.

What the published files do not say is why. They report how many students were counted, by grade and by category. They do not report births, housing costs, who moved into the city and who left, or which families weighed one school against another and chose.

What the grades hold

The shape underneath the total is where the planning question gets concrete.

In 2025-26 Northampton enrolled 138 kindergartners and 226 seniors. The senior class was 64 percent larger than the kindergarten class. The four high school grades together held 838 students. Kindergarten through grade five held 924, spread across six grades instead of four. First grade, at 121 students, was the smallest grade in the district after prekindergarten.

That is a snapshot of the classes enrolled in one year, not a forecast of anything. Classes gain and lose students, and at 138 a kindergarten class is small enough to move noticeably from one year to the next. Still, the entering grades have been thinner than the exiting ones for a while. Northampton enrolled 159 kindergartners in 2014-15 and reached its published low of 122 in 2024-25.

Azarloza's answer treated the number as information about the district rather than a constraint on it.

"For me, that means creating schools where families want to send their children, educators want to work, and scholars feel that they belong and are challenged to achieve at high levels," she wrote. "We need to understand why families choose Northampton, why some choose other options, and what we can learn from both. Enrollment is certainly a planning variable, but it's also feedback. My goal is not simply to plan around having fewer scholars. It's to build a district that families actively choose."

One of those other options is reported in the same city. Smith Vocational and Agricultural, which the state counts as a separate district, published 430 students in 2014-15 and 589 in 2025-26, a rise of 37.0 percent while Northampton fell. The state files do not record where either district's students live, and nothing published shows a single student moving between them. The two lines are moving in opposite directions in the same city, and that is all the record supports saying about them.

What she says she brought

Azarloza's path into the seat ran through several kinds of systems.

"I've worked in large urban systems, suburban communities, and most recently as superintendent in New Hampshire," she wrote. "What I carry with me is the understanding that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to leading a school district."

Asked what families and staff should understand first about how she works, she described structures before priorities.

"I also bring a strong belief in systems development," she wrote. "That means developing leadership at every level, creating clear structures and expectations, using data thoughtfully, and keeping teaching and learning at the center of our work. My job isn’t to have every answer. It’s to make sure we're asking the right questions, bringing the right people to the table, and building the conditions for our scholars and staff to thrive."

She reduced the rest to three words.

"I often describe my leadership expectations in three words: Listen. Empower. Deliver," she wrote. "Listen to understand. Empower others to lead and contribute. And then deliver on what we say matters."

She also declined to treat any of it as settled.

"I also believe in continuous learning and improvement," she wrote. "Strong school districts are never “finished.” We should always be learning, reflecting, looking honestly at our outcomes, and asking what we can do better for scholars."

The district in the files

Beyond the headcount, the composition of Northampton moved modestly across the window. The district reported 596 students receiving special education services in 2025-26, 25.0 percent of its published total, against 634 students and 23.5 percent in 2014-15: fewer students in the category, a larger share of a smaller district. It reported 98 students who are English learners last year, 4.1 percent. The share of students reported as white fell from 71.3 percent to 68.1 percent and the share reported as Hispanic rose from 16.9 percent to 18.6 percent.

The published grade rows for 2025-26 sum to 2,374 against the district total of 2,382, a gap the state's files do not explain. The district's six published school totals do reconcile exactly to 2,382.

Northampton's next published count will be the first one taken while Azarloza holds the seat, and it will not appear until after this school year closes. The files can report how many students the district enrolls. What she is asking them to explain is not in there.

Enrollment figures come from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education published district enrollment record, covering 2014-15 through 2025-26. Superintendent Azarloza responded in writing; quotations are reproduced as she wrote them.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.

Northampton - EdTribune MA - Massachusetts Education Data

Annie Azarloza Wants Northampton to Be a District Families Choose. Its Enrollment Has Fallen 319 Students Since 2014-15.

Twice the state's rate

What the grades hold

What she says she brought

The district in the files