Weston School Committee Approves New Staff Amid District-Wide Enrollment Surge

WESTON — August 26, 2024 — Weston School Committee votes unanimously to add a middle school section and up to $300,000 in elementary staffing as enrollment surges. The 4-0 vote at the August 26 meeting authorized one new sixth-grade section at Weston Middle School — covering English, math, social studies, and science — and up to $300,000 drawn from contingency and prepayment funds for classroom instructional aides at the elementary level, where Country School enrollment hit a record 338 students. Middle School Principal Phil Oates told the committee that sixth-grade class sizes had reached 25 and 26 students per section before the addition, while elementary Principal Erin reported third- and fifth-grade sections sitting at or near the 22-student policy ceiling across all three elementary schools. The committee opted for classroom aides rather than new teacher hires at the elementary level to avoid reassigning students who had already received classroom placements. Separately, new Director of Technology Dr. Neal Trahan presented an audit recommending a shift to centralized tech support, a $12,000 annual savings by replacing ClassLink with the free Clever platform, and a migration from Infinite Campus to PowerSchool, while a June parent survey of roughly 77 respondents found 82 percent satisfaction with the district.