Committee approves Student Opportunity Act report and recommends EL Education curriculum for upper elementary; district to expand Fundations phonics K–3

The Weston School Committee voted to approve its Student Opportunity Act (SOA) submission and accepted staff recommendations on early-literacy curriculum changes that the administration says will align instruction from the early grades into upper elementary.

During the presentation, literacy lead Deb Moriarty told the committee that the district’s literacy team evaluated candidate programs and recommended adopting EL Education for fourth and fifth grades, while expanding the district’s use of Fundations — a structured phonics program — to pre‑K through grade 3 and adding or continuing daily Heggerty phonemic-awareness routines in primary grades.

“The recommendation is to adopt EL Education language arts curriculum,” Moriarty said. She also said Fundations materials and aligned decodables will be expanded, particularly to provide consistent instruction for decoding and encoding in the district’s youngest grades.

Moriarty and staff noted that EL Education is releasing a 2025 edition and that the district will review that updated release and platform options before completing purchases. The committee also asked staff to examine distributor and platform options (for example, Open Up Resources, Kiddom, Imagine Learning) and to present implementation timelines and support plans for teachers.

The committee approved the SOA submission, including the literacy plan and related updates. The motion to approve the SOA as submitted — with EL Education identified as the program of choice — carried on an affirmative voice vote recorded in the transcript as “Aye.” The transcript does not include a roll-call tally.

Staff said the district will aim to implement Fundations (30 minutes per day fidelity) and Heggerty in kindergarten through third grade and to begin EL Education implementation in grades 4–5 during the coming school year, with staged supports and professional development for teachers. Staff also described a phased timeline for primary-grade rollout and emphasized the need for coordinated professional development, scope-and-sequence alignment, and consistent classroom practice to ensure fidelity across classes.

The committee asked staff to return with a concrete implementation plan, vendor details and a schedule for teacher training so the curriculum changes and SOA commitments can be carried out reliably.

Votes at the meeting also included approval of the FY26 operating budget (at the cost-center level) and a consent agenda that included a DECA field trip and MSBA Statement of Interest submission for a high school and middle school project.