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NEW BEDFORD — Incumbent Melissa Costa and newcomers Richard Porter and Von Marie Moniz will serve on the New Bedford School Committee next year, snagging three open seats in a four-person race. Costa placed first with 4,831 votes — over 1,300 more votes than Porter, who placed second.
They join sitting members Bruce Oliveira, Joaquim “Jack” Livramento Jr., Christopher Cotter, and ex-officio member Mayor Jon Mitchell, who each go up for reelection in 2027. (The sitting New Bedford mayor automatically serves as chair of the committee.)
Falling short by less than 150 votes, Marcus Coward was the only candidate not to land a spot on the seven-person committee.
Costa, having first run for School Committee four years ago, became the first Hispanic woman to serve on a New Bedford governing board in 2021. Ahead of Tuesday’s results, Costa stressed the importance of greater representation across the city’s elected bodies. One in every four New Bedford residents is Hispanic, but Hispanic voters turn out at lower rates than the rest of the city.
“Being able to be a voice at the table and recognizing that representation does matter, but I am only one voice,” Costa said. “I only have my experience and my story to draw from, and there are so many other thousands of stories to be heard, to be listened to, to be validated out there.”
Porter distinguished himself as a longtime educator and administrator in Dartmouth as well as a former union leader. Having placed fourth in a school committee election in 2017, Porter said he was more experienced this time with the ins and outs of campaign filings and signature collecting, allowing him to better focus this year’s campaign on voter engagement and social media messaging.
“I feel like we were able to be more strategic this time,” Porter said. “For example, I’m the oldest of the group, so with social media, we worked with some other people and asked, ‘Can you help us with that?’”
As a first-time candidate, Moniz said her time on the trail was a personal learning experience and at times, a civics education lesson. Moniz has two children in New Bedford’s public school system, making her the only NBPS parent to serve on the committee come January.
“It was really helpful getting similar questions throughout the [candidate] forums because it really made me think outside of my ‘mom box,’ because I’m always thinking about my kids,” Moniz said. “Now, I’m thinking about a larger pool of kids.”
After learning Tuesday’s results, Moniz confessed she did not fully expect to win. Her first order of business, she said, would be to attend Porter’s election night celebration at Sixes and Sevens.
“And then I’m going to go home and be a mom,” Moniz said. “Because these kids need to go to bed. There’s school tomorrow.”
Coward, the challenger who failed to win a seat, had made his case to New Bedford voters as the only Gen-Z candidate on the ballot, arguing that a younger committee member would better represent student interests. Coward also said he would push for financial literacy and AI literacy courses in schools to better reflect the workforce students will enter into.
Throughout his campaign, Coward said he hoped to galvanize young residents not only to show up at the ballot box but to get involved in their communities and maybe get inspired to make their own bid for office. Waiting for the night’s results in the crowded corridors of City Hall, Coward reiterated that point.
“It’s a victory for me either way this goes, one for the voters and for the students, because I’m very confident in all of my colleagues,” said Coward. “But two, I know personally a lot of people who hadn’t voted before out of disinterest or apathy who are now voting because they know me or I’ve gotten them interested in politics… So that’s a victory for me.”
Email Brooke Kushwaha at bkushwaha@newbedfordlight.org.
I just hope that these school committee members become more moderate in their thinking.
Can you be specific about how you would like them to be more moderate.
Unless this administration does something about the growth of the school department, the city will struggle. Even with State and Federal Aid it still takes up 65% of the city budget. With no new revenue streams, the only option is raising taxes, and that means higher tax rates that will prevent economic growth and new jobs. Companies will not come to our city when they can go to other area city and towns and pay less taxes.