Mayor Katjana Ballantyne stands in opposition to all forms of hate, including xenophobia, antisemitism, and Islamophobia, as she always has done. She has always been against all war. As the child of parents who struggled to survive World War Two, she was raised with the awareness of their loss of family and friends, their forced displacement, their starvation, and their lost homes. She understands. She has believed that when anyone is abused for their religion, race, or ethnicity, then we all suffer.
Mayor Ballantyne has made real progress combating the city's rat problem. She's combined expanded traditional methods with innovative technologies like electric traps and fertility control. She has made Somerville a leader in rat control, and our neighbors in Boston and Cambridge are looking to her for help.
The entire WHCIS community is now together in their interim home in Edgerly Education Center, and Mayor Ballantyne has focused her efforts on opening an entirely new facility in 2031 (That’s only six years away, when a typical school building project takes ten years or more).
Mayor Ballantyne has decidedly resisted regional trends of cuts and layoffs. Instead, over the four years of her administration, she’s increased the school budget by 34 percent. In the fiscal year 2025 budget, she added over 35 net full-time equivalent positions to Somerville Public Schools. For our mayor, investing in youth doesn’t stop at the classroom. Her administration has invested heavily in expanded after-school programs and new youth opportunities, and she started a school year expansion of the Mayor’s Summer Jobs Program.
Somerville Mayor Katjana Ballantyne is actively implementing recommendations from the Public Safety for All initiative's task forces and working groups, focusing on creating a community-directed approach to public safety
