Marc Laredo has been mayor of Newton for 100 days, as of Friday.

If it seems like it’s been longer than that, it’s because 2026 feels like it’s been three years already. It hasn’t been. There’s just a lot going on.

How has Mayor Marc Laredo’s administration fared in its first 100 days? It’s hard to judge results this early in the game, but the administration has laid a lot of groundwork for the next four years that has people talking.

There’s a new Arts and Culture Department. Laredo has filled some important roles with some well-known local figures, like Lauren Berman as economic development director and John Rice as community services chief, to name just a couple of examples.

And Laredo has pledged to let the folks at St. Mary of Carmen in Nonantum display the Italian flag colors displayed on Adams Street, with a reflective strip for road safety.

The mayor has been not only vocal about his displeasure with Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics in communities since ICE-related deaths have made national headlines, he’s also joined anti-ICE protests to show his opposition.

So far, Laredo—who served on the School Committee in the 2000s and the City Council for 14 years after that—has impressed his colleagues in his first hundred days in the city’s top office.

“I think the administration has made some good initial moves, especially community outreach with the Laredo Listening Tour and trying to improve the city’s fiscal health,” At-Large Councilor Tarik Lucas said, adding that he’d like to see the mayor focus on having diversity of opinion on boards and commissions.

Andrea Kelley, at-large councilor from Ward 3, said she’s encouraged by Laredo’s expressed commitment to transparency, arts and culture, public education, constituent service and a “can-do attitude from his team.”

“I hope he will continue to collaborate with the City Council, to honor all these stated goals and promises, to find the funding to hire the staff needed, and to pay for these services and programs,” she said.

Mayor Marc Laredo speaks after signing an executive order regarding immigration agents and protester safety on Feb. 5, 2026. Screen shot from Boston City TV

And then there’s the annual slow walk down the pathway of glowing hot coals known as Newton’s school budget process.

Superintendent Anna Nolin has a bold, exciting vision for the district that can only be achieved with a highly funded budget that supports current and additional programming and support systems—a financial commitment she calls the “Thrive Budget.”

As costs for things like health care and utilities have skyrocketed while annual tax revenues have not, the city has wrestled with how to meet the demands of NPS funding for years now, and that struggle even saw a two-week teacher strike two years ago.

The “Thrive Budget” is going to take time, effort and financial innovation to work toward, Nolin has acknowledged, but she has fought each year to keep the NPS budget at least at level-services so the district doesn’t slide backwards in times of fiscal uncertainty.

Last year, the School Committee made the rare, controversial move of approving the superintendent’s budget request instead of approving an NPS budget for then-Mayor Fuller’s allotment, which was millions of dollars lower than what they approved. That was in the middle of a contentious budget crisis that eventually had Fuller and CFO Maureen Lemieux work out a way for NPS to get more money added to its base allocation throughout this fiscal year, via free cash and other levers.

This year, the new mayor has tried to avert that drama. He set this year’s budget according to the higher final resulting funding for NPS, not the lower base allocation, which allowed NPS to get more than a 7 percent increase for FY2027. 

“Marc and his administration have a fundamentally different orientation to the schools than the last administration,” School Committee Chair Alicia Piedalue said. “This orientation is evident in how the mayor engages on policy issues by centering NPS, in how he expects city departments to work collaboratively with the schools, and in how he prioritizes NPS in the city budget. It’s also evident in how he has dug into learning all he can about how our schools operate in 2026 and how our student profiles are vastly more complex than they were even 10-15 years ago.”

Piedalue commended Laredo for his focus on collaboration, including the committee and the superintendent in conversations about pension obligation changes and his executive order regarding ICE and city staff.

“Budgeting is still incredibly hard when we experience cost drivers like we did this year, and of course we don’t agree on everything, but it’s been an encouraging 100 days and I look forward to continuing to work with the Mayor and his team on the many thorny issues we face,” Piedalue said.

But even with that large increase over last year, there still isn’t enough money in Laredo’s budget to keep services level for FY2027. So, while a new math advancement program is set to debut, the district is sacrificing behavioral support staff, a sustainability role and half of the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Department chair’s position.

This has school funding advocates fuming, and people have shown up at every School Committee meeting for the past couple of months demanding something be done to fund those roles in addition to the math program rollout.

It’s been quite an active hundred days for the new mayor and his team. Inflation has set fire to budgeting plans made just months ago. Enhanced federal immigration crackdowns are giving Newtonians anxiety while state and federal funding vanishes. Police unions are still without contracts. There’s a lot of work, and maybe some headaches, on the horizon.

Cyrus Dahmubed—the new at-large councilor from Ward 4 and one of only two winning candidates in last year’s elections not endorsed by Laredo—said he thinks Laredo has done well in his first 100 days, noting Laredo’s big increase in NPS funding and early avoidance of another Nonantum street lines fiasco, for starters.

Dahmubed added that he’s thrilled with the city’s new Arts and Culture Department, headed by Meryl Kessler, as well as the additions of Dana Hanson, Josh Morse, John Rice, Hattie Kerwin-Derrick and Jaclyn Norton, all of whom he said deserve credit for making City Hall function and serve the public.

Executive Aide Jaclyn Norton, Chief Community Services Officer John Rice and Chief Operating Officer Josh Morse await the swearing-in of Mayor Marc Laredo on Jan. 1, 2026. Photo by Bryan McGonigle

“All that being said, I would very much have liked to see even more urgency around fully funding the NPS level budget so that we weren’t facing cuts and reductions there,” he continued. “To me this would have meant a real strategy around utilizing the Education Stabilization Fund, or finding other resources. We’re seeing traction on addressing our Pension commitments, which is a good medium-term step.”

Dahmubed said he’s also not seeing a plan for long-term financial sustainability, while people float ideas like Proposition 2 ½ overrides and pension liability payment rescheduling.

“This is also tied to developing an economic development plan and enabling it through integration with a clear vision from the Planning Department, which remains understaffed after three key departures,” he said. “I’d love to have seen a real prioritization of staffing that team back up and articulating a clear vision and a plan for its achievement. Without this, how are we going to increase revenue to meet the reality that structural costs will continue to outpace the 2.5% annual revenue increase to which we are limited by Prop. 2 1/2?”

Dahmubed praised Laredo’s executive order on public safety and federal immigration activity and said he’d like to see more clarity and urgency with that.

“This is an area where I know important work is happening behind the scenes, but we haven’t yet seen a lot of visible/tangible items beyond the Executive Order itself,” he said. “I’d like to see a dedicated web page with immigration and know-your-rights information, which we’ve been told is in the works, as well as signage in public areas, guidance for school and city employees, and other similar resources.”

How does Mayor Laredo think his first 100 days have gone? We’ll hear from him in full detail on April 16, when he joins The Newton Beacon and NewTV for a discussion (and a bit of a grilling) about his hits, his misses and his vision for the next 100 days and beyond.