Weston School Committee adopts FY2025 budget guidelines, hears student health data

WESTON — October 2, 2023 — Weston School Committee adopts FY2025 budget guidelines and hears sobering student mental health data. The five-member board voted unanimously Monday to approve the guidelines and introduce a new priority-based budgeting process, as the district faces absorbing roughly $731,000 in ESSER III personnel costs into its operating budget before the federal grant closes June 30, 2024. Department head Mitch Finnegan and Superintendent Dr. Karen Zaleski presented 2021 Metro West Adolescent Health Survey results showing that 4 percent of both middle and high school students reported suicide attempts, that Weston high schoolers outpaced the Metro West region in nearly every alcohol use category at 29 percent current drinking versus 25 percent regionally, and that LGBTQ middle school students were 5.8 times more likely to report self-injury than their peers. The committee also unanimously approved policies governing tennis court use and professional staff salary schedules, appointed Kenneth Newberg to represent the board at the Weston Financial Summit, and ratified a side agreement with the teachers union redirecting $11,000 in club stipends from inactive to active student organizations.