Ward 7 School Committee member Alicia Piedalue won a special election in March and was sworn in on April 2. Now, she’s been elected to lead the committee.

“I admit it’s a little surprising to find myself in this position after only eight months on the committee,” she said. “I think I would find it more daunting if I weren’t surrounded by such a capable and highly engaged team. I think the role of the chair will be a little different than it has been in the recent past because of this strong and pretty well-aligned team.”

There’s practically a whole new committee, in fact, with six members and the mayor having not run for reelection this year. Piedalue and Ward 4 member Tamika Olszewski are the only incumbents returning to the committee.

Piedalue said that as chair, she’ll need to work with the various skill sets the new members bring to the table while prioritizing the right things at the right time.

“The first and most important work we will undertake this year is funding,” Piedalue said. “The FY27 budget cannot be built in a vacuum. A reasonable FY27 budget relies on a budget plan for the next handful of years so it’s a much more complex problem than simply figuring out what we do for next year.”

The district faces a structural deficit problem that Piedalue said will require the city to adjust its pension payment schedule. Newton is eight years ahead of the state’s 2040 goal to have pensions paid off, and many have called for that to be rolled back so the city can have more money to fund the schools now rather than wait until 2032.

“There is a path forward, but it’s going to be a lot of work in the near term and a lot of collaboration with our new mayor,” Piedalue said. “We are lucky to have Jason Bhardwaj and Ben Schlesinger bringing their considerable financial backgrounds to bear on this one.”

Bhardwaj, who comes from Ward 3, has been elected as vice chair.

Budgeting isn’t the only challenge facing Newton Public Schools. Piedalue noted that the committee has to deal with the Ward and Underwood schools, which both need repairs and have been the subject of consolidation talks. There’s also Superintendent Anna Nolin’s mission to standardize curriculum and optimize student outcomes, as well as a need to shore up special education programming in the years ahead.

“To that end, I think you can expect me and other members to be spending more time with all of these stakeholders, as well as with our elected partners in City Council and our state representatives,” Piedalue said.

Piedalue made sure to throw accolades at outgoing Chair Chris Brezski, who chaired the committee through two budget crises and a two-week teacher strike and helped negotiate this year’s NPS budget framework.

“He has shifted the direction of the committee to focus on student outcomes in a very deliberate way,” Piedalue said. “I share that orientation and will push us to remain focused on what is best for Newton’s kids.”

We’ve heard about Nolin’s vision, and we’ve seen how it matches with Brezski’s. But what is Alicia Piedalue’s vision for Newton’s public school community?

“It’s hard to not sound cheesy when answering this, and I’m OK with that,” she quipped. “I really believe in the promise and the power of public schools to ensure every child reaches their full potential. This is an incredibly tall order when you think about the many different kinds of learners we have in Newton.

“But Newton is also a ‘Goldilocks’ district in my view: We are large enough to have a diverse student body, a huge range of programming from AP classes and college-like electives in our high schools, to career and technical education programs that compete with specialized schools, to special ed programs that most districts outsource; and we are large enough to have a resource base to support our work,” Piedalue continued. “We are also small enough to embrace the Neighborhood School model, meet individualized student needs, and capitalize on the highly engaged community we are lucky to have. If Newton can’t be a model for our nation for successful public schools, I don’t know who can.”

Piedalue has four kids and has decades of experience in organizational health and talent management as well as multiple public and private school governance boards. She currently serves on the Governing Board for the Eliot Innovation School in Boston’s North End.