League of Women Voters showcases candidates

Candidates for the annual town election made their case to more than 50 residents at a League of Women Voters forum on April 9, with School Committee candidates Adam Newman and Steve Dietz taking center stage.

Dietz and Newman traded answers to resident questions for more than an hour during the virtual debate. They were joined by the four Recreation Commission candidates Art Gibson, George Manley, Nick Warren and Chika Toure, who are running for three seats. All candidates shared their priorities with voters ahead of the May 2 election. The contested candidates were also joined by the three Select Board nominees, Al Aydelott, Rebecca Mercuri and Anupam Sachdev; Planning Board candidate Adrienne Giske and moderator candidate Ripley Hastings, who each introduced themselves to voters.

Newman, 54, introduced his platform focused on his extensive experience as a teacher and education consultant, including founding of Tyton Partners, an education consultancy and investment firm. With many difficult challenges confronting the schools and town, Newman said his industry background will help the School Committee handle financial strains, evolving technology and the building project.

“The question before voters as they consider School Committee this cycle is not whether we care about students, we all do … the question is, who’s best prepared to navigate the district and the community through the complex decisions, the high-stakes decisions we currently have and how we will get there together,” Newman said. “Our schools are a priceless resource. It needs to be led carefully, responsibly and with a clear understanding of what’s at stake.”

Dietz, 46, who will have one student at each school level in the district this fall, works in the tech industry and wants to take his experience in “building things, analyzing data and being accountable to results” to the School Committee. His top priorities include representing the community, especially those with kids in elementary school, on the School Committee, ensuring fiscal responsibility in a tough economic environment, preparing for future growth and continuing to build on Weston Public Schools’ stellar reputation.

“If you want a great public education, you move to Weston, and with three development projects that are coming forward, probably in the next few years, that growth is going to accelerate. That’s a compliment to this community, but it’s also a challenge,” Dietz said. “We need people on the committee who are going to ask ROI, or return on investment, questions every single day. This doesn’t mean austerity, it doesn’t mean cutting; it just means the discipline to ask what every dollar actually buys, and whether these decisions are actually here and followed through in the long-term.”

The candidates faced a range of questions, ranging from how they would handle future budget decisions to issues such as special education and artificial intelligence in schools, among others. 

Finance Committee Chair Bharath Venkataraman noted the “vast majority of the town does not actually have students in the school,” and asked Newman and Dietz about their budget philosophies, as well as how they will work with the Finance Committee.

Newman emphasized the importance of having a story to go along with the district’s budget proposal – the whats and whys of the budget to help guide voters – and how proactive budget and investment discussions, such as the one held in December, can create a much stronger proposal further down the line.

Dietz said the School Committee needs to look at the broader picture of the town’s budget when developing its own, and while “75% to 80%” of the budget goes toward personnel, the remaining aspects should be scrutinized just as heavily. He added that increased growth on the outskirts of town, such as the Boston Properties planned development, is an opportunity for the town to collect more revenue while growing the school district.

In addition to general questions about school operations and governance, residents asked Newman about his decision to enroll his children in private schools and his dissenting vote on the bell-to-bell cellphone ban (a 3-2 vote.)

“I send all four of my kids to Weston Public Schools, and Adam does not. That’s not a criticism, I think that’s entirely his right,” Dietz said. “But I think it’s a distinction that voters should know about, and it’s something they should consider when they vote.”

Newman said his children attended Weston Public Schools through middle school, but coming out of the pandemic, he and his wife “made a decision that was in the best interest for our kids at that point in time.” In regard to the cellphone policy vote, he said he felt there was a “missed opportunity” to discuss how the policy transition from middle school to high school would affect students.

“It was also about, what’s the community experience and the trust that we want to build with our students at the high school level … that was part of the discussion that I felt, candidly, we pushed through and past,” Newman said. “Everybody learned something, we made a decision and we’re moving forward … I don’t reflect on it too much anymore because there are so many other things that are important for us to be contending with right now.”

The League of Women Voters’ forum, which includes statements from Select Board and Recreation Commission candidates, can be found on Weston Media Center’s website, or at this link: bit.ly/4tDRMyF.

Weston’s election is set for Saturday, May 2 at Town Hall, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The last day to register to vote is April 22.
Editor’s note: For full 2026 annual town election coverage, visit the Observer’s complete collection at westonobserver.org/weston-2026-election-coverage.