AUBURN – The city will have plenty of time to talk politics, according to Mayor John Jenkins.

Monday’s inauguration was about celebrating.

Jenkins thanked everyone – from newly minted city councilors and School Committee members to councilors past, state legislators, U.S. senators and taxpayers – during his inauguration speech at Central Maine Community College’s Kirk Hall.

He pledged to fill his one-year term with hard work and urged elected officials to work as a single unit – a team.

“I know something about building a team,” he said.

A group of about 270 attended to see Jenkins, the City Council and School Committee sworn in.

The ceremony was short on process but long on symbolism. The mayor mentioned that he had a number of citizen committees he hoped to form, and urged everyone listening to volunteer.

But Jenkins didn’t list his committees or say what he expected them to do – or when. That was by design, he said.

“This is a celebration. We don’t want to make it about policy,” Jenkins said. “We’ll have plenty of time to talk about all of that later on.”

Even the choice of musical accompaniment meant something special, Jenkins said. Instead of bringing in the Auburn Community Band, Jenkins chose the student bands from both Edward Little High School and Lewiston High School. They were joined by the Auburn Middle School Chorus.

“I wanted this to be about the kids, to include everybody,” Jenkins said. “That wasn’t just a campaign promise.”

Jenkins said he’d heard the combined Lewiston-Auburn student band play last month, and liked the way they sounded.

“And it symbolizes the cooperation between the two cities,” he said.

Ward 5 School Committee member David Das presented the school committee’s inaugural address. Das said his committee has one job – to make sure students can succeed in a changing world.

He pointed to school committee efforts to begin pre-kindergarten for Auburn 4-year-olds and crowding at Edward Little High School.

Committee members met immediately after the ceremony to select Das as the committee chair and at-large member Ross Leavitt as vice chair.