School Committee approves $51.36 million FY27 budget

The School Committee on March 10 unanimously approved a slightly restructured $51.36 million budget, which will see the school district make several long-term investments in student services, technology and instructional time.

The vote on the 3.95% budget increase came after nearly two months of tweaks, as the School Committee asked the administration to develop several proposals to explore all options. The end result is a budget that includes new hardware and software for district technology and a total of 6.5 full-time equivalent instructors across the district.

School Committee Chair Adam Newman said the school budget is “effectively the largest investment the town makes every year,” and he is grateful for the close examination that the district, School Committee and staff have done since the initial January presentation.

At $51.36 million, Weston Public Schools’ budget represents nearly half of Weston’s $107.28 million budget proposal presented by Town Manager Leon Gaumond in January.

“I really appreciated and am grateful for all the time and investment the administration, the teachers, the admin council, have put into thinking through the budget for this year,” he said. “It’s not an easy process; school budgets in this current environment we live in are hard.”

The increase is in line with the last six years’ budget proposals, which all remained below 4%. On average, the district’s budget has increased by 2.97% each year since FY21, with higher increases in FY25 and FY26, as pandemic emergency funding lapsed.

While the budget approved by the School Committee is similar to Superintendent Karen Zaleski’s initial $51.38 million budget, the initial request only included one full-time-equivalent new position for the High School. School Committee members throughout January and February weighed the benefits of an increased budget which they believed would better serve students and faculty, while understanding that request would need voter approval at Town Meeting.

Zaleski and her team, though, found savings in several line items to add a second full-time-equivalent high school teacher to support the school’s new sectioning. Those savings, reflected in the slightly lower budget that was approved, included attrition savings, AED supplies, reduced copier supplies and a pre-K tuition offset.

To accommodate the investments, several positions around the district were cut: a student support assistant at Field Elementary School, a Middle School office aide, three High School learning assistants, a High School office aide and a nursing department administrative assistant. Other cuts include supplies, a reduced superintendent’s contingency line item and $400,000 in technology savings.

In all, the reductions totaled $858,882. Zaleski previously explained that many of the cuts are an opportunity to be more efficient. The district’s budget presentation outlined that the two office aides’ responsibilities could be picked up by other staff, the new high school schedule reduces the need for three learning assistants and the nursing administrative assistant’s work can be absorbed by the nursing department.

Daina Selvig credited the administration for “sharpening the pencils” to find a way to add another full-time-equivalent position at the high school, but she emphasized that the position cuts were not taken lightly.

“I think this is an opportunity to increase the number of classes and the opportunity for time on active learning with respect for our secondary students,” Selvig said, adding that she does not “think there’s a lot of fat to trim” in the district. “I don’t want us to forget that this did have an impact on people too.”

Residents will consider the school budget, as well as Weston’s operating budget, at the May 4 Annual Town Meeting. The Finance Committee was expected to review the budget at its March 12 meeting.