New assistant superintendent looking toward future

Faced with potential new state graduation requirements and the fast-paced rise of artificial intelligence tools, Todd Whitten, Weston Public Schools’ new assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, is joining the role at an inflection point for education.

But even with all of the changes on the horizon, Whitten, 55, said his philosophy over the last three decades of experience at nearly every level in education remains the same.

“Throughout my career, the phrase that I use is, ‘We take responsibility for each kid,’” he said in a recent interview. “The great thing about being a small district is that when we talk about those kinds of opportunity and achievement gaps that exist…we know who the kids are. It is building off of everything the district has done with [the Universal Design for Learning framework], that’s all about finding the barriers and removing them.”

Whitten, who joined the district as Weston High School’s assistant principal in 2024, will provide direction on the district’s curriculum, professional development, grant management, evaluation and guidance for each school’s administration. His salary is $165,500.

A major part of driving the curriculum direction will be helping to guide Weston Public Schools’ implementation of AI. Whitten is working with Neil Trahan, assistant superintendent of technology and operations.

“I think that is going to be one of the defining challenges for education, not just here, but everywhere,” he said. “The challenge is, how do we work with it?”

With students already using AI technology and teachers eager to take advantage of it, Whitten said the ongoing AI training of faculty is about getting them comfortable with the tools, so they can be used to supplement instruction.

Whitten said AI is a tool like any other classroom tool, and the district is focused on building staff and students’ expertise, so it can be used in a beneficial way.

“It can provide so much support. At the same time, there are very real environmental considerations to its use, so how do we teach teachers to integrate this into what they do, while not allowing students to sit back and be like, ‘Hey, solve this problem,’” he said. “Balancing both the safeguards and the opportunities is the way we’re looking at it right now.”

Beyond the major challenges facing education, Whitten’s first month and a half on the job has been about familiarizing himself with the rest of the district. He said each school has a “fabulous administrative team” and the work done by both the School Committee and his predecessor, James “Kimo” Carter, has put the district in a great spot.

“Weston has so many great teachers and so many opportunities that are already being realized, that I think for me, I’m fortunate to be inheriting a district that is in amazing shape,” Whitten said. “I’m more comfortably grounded with those connections in the secondary, with the Middle School/High School, so my hope is to be doing lots of outreach with the elementary schools, getting more familiar with them.”