School staff: Don’t cut ‘the backbone of our district’

Members of the school district’s unions at the Feb. 3 School Committee meeting urged administrators to reconsider their fiscal year 2027 budget proposal that eliminates several office, administrative and learning assistant positions.

The budget proposal, presented by Superintendent Karen Zaleski on Jan. 12, lays out a $51.38 million operating budget for next school year. The proposed budget is 3.99%, or nearly $1.97 million higher than FY26’s $49.41 million budget.

While the proposal contains several investments identified as priorities for the district’s future – technology, expanded special education services and maximizing instructional time – it also proposes cutting three high school learning assistants, a student support assistant at the Field School, a nursing administrative assistant and office aides at both the Middle School and High School.

Several members of the district’s unions, clad in red to show solidarity, said the proposed reductions could result in weaker building security and create a less efficient working environment for administrators at each school, which will trickle down to students.

“Even the smallest muscles play an important role in the overall strength of the system,” said Katie Skelley, a high school administrative assistant and the president of the Weston Administrative Assistants Association. She added support staff undertake “crucial work that maintains the supportive environment our students deserve.”

Patricia Desmarais, president of the Weston Education Association, said support staff provide the “behavioral and academic support that teachers alone cannot provide,” and Weston’s reputation as a “top-performing district” is a result of investing in every aspect of the schools.

“They are the backbone of our district, our support staff. We need them,” Desmarais said. “We recognize and genuinely appreciate how extraordinarily difficult it is to build a budget … There has been an ongoing reduction in expenses and staffing. The budget needs to be increased.”

In all, the reductions total $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.

“We value the work that you’re doing and we appreciate you. I love hearing that you love your job; this is not easy for us,” Zaleski said. “Would we love to have it all? Absolutely. We would love to keep everything as is.”

After hearing the staff’s comments, School Committee members again wrestled with the idea of increasing the budget beyond the current 3.99% increase, originally proposed by Jane Li in January.

“I’m sort of pushing back on the 3.99%,” she said. “It sounds like that we have investments that we want to be making and [are] looking at cutting positions that are not teacher positions, but they are also important positions. Do we want to stick with this 4%?”

Daina Selvig said the district and School Committee are in a difficult position because neither the town nor the Finance Committee provide a target for the district’s budget each year. Rather, it is up to them to put forward and endorse a number that will be accepted by voters at Town Meeting – many of whom do not have children in the schools.

“What happens if it’s 4.1[%]? What happens if it’s 4.25[%]?” she said. “Ultimately it has to be supported by the taxpayers … What is palatable? They look the budget up and down, and there are big asks coming.”

School Committee Chair Adam Newman noted the proposal before them is already a compromise between the district’s investment priorities and fiscal responsibility. If all of the district’s proposed investments were included in the budget, it would have required a 7.18% increase.

“The investments that are being made in this budget are a fraction of what the administration hoped for, as well,” Newman said. “We are trying to make changes as rapidly, as thoughtfully as we can. This isn’t the private sector, unfortunately. We do have to find our way through a maze that we don’t have as much elbow room as we like.”

While district administrators have already compiled their rationale for each of the proposed cuts, Zaleski agreed to meet with her team to see if there are other potential savings. She is expected to come back with new estimates before the end of the month.

Building project update

In other business, the School Committee completed the first two procedural steps of the Massachusetts School Building Authority’s project process by signing an agreement with the agency, which was already signed by the Select Board, and finalizing the composition of the School Building Committee.

The School Building Committee, which will have its members appointed in the near future, will feature two School Committee members, one Select Board member, a Finance Committee representative, a Sustainability Committee member, a Permanent Building Committee member and one at-large position.

While those positions will serve as voting members, the School Building Committee will also feature Zaleski, Director of Finance David Coelho, several other school administrators, incoming Facilities Director John Marzec and Town Manager Leon Gaumond.