Weston School Committee approves Peru and France trips, ratifies labor deal

WESTON — June 6, 2022 — Weston School Committee unanimously approved three international student trips and ratified its fifth collective bargaining agreement at its June 6 meeting. The committee cleared a nine-night Peru service-learning trip for middle schoolers through vendor Global Works, a high school cultural trip to Peru through Walking Tree, and a nine-day Paris-and-Nice trip for grades seven through eleven through Explorica, all priced between roughly $3,400 and $3,850 per student including airfare. Chair Kenneth Newberg said the administrative assistants union contract includes a 5.75 percent cost-of-living adjustment over three years plus a $500 annual payment sunsetting after the contract period — the same terms reached with every other district bargaining unit. Director of Student Services Martha Larson disclosed that Weston carries a federal significant disproportionality designation requiring roughly $635,000 in annual IDEA fund spending on mitigation, and reported 21,443 nursing encounters districtwide during the school year. The district's annual DESE financial audit, conducted by Powers and Sullivan, came back with no findings for the third consecutive year.