Unidentified Speaker 1, Committee member, opened the Dec. 19 Educational Optimization Committee meeting for the Weston School District and asked members to focus on a high-level set of topics the Board of Education should consider during a series of special meetings through June.

The committee listed several priority areas: grade reconfiguration; a holistic review of all educational facilities (including the senior center and district offices); the bus garage and grounds/maintenance facility with an eye toward electric-bus charging needs; the annex; and shared town amenities such as the pool and tennis courts. Unidentified Speaker 2, Committee member, urged the group to assess school and town facilities together rather than in isolation.

Why it matters: the committee is producing an options package for the Board of Education and agreed that the external SLAM study will be decisive for eliminating or endorsing certain options. Unidentified Speaker 6, Committee member, said SLAM authorization has been sent and the district expects a report in roughly six to eight weeks, targeting January to mid-February; members agreed to schedule substantive options discussion after that report.

"We have 39 acres at our disposal," Unidentified Speaker 3, Committee member, said when outlining a planning framework. He described a four-level "pyramid" that begins with educational vision, then curriculum/programming, then land (the 39 acres), and finally the building blocks (modular groupings such as a 180-student module, cited as roughly 30,000 square feet). The framework is intended to guide which combinations of building blocks make financial and programmatic sense.

Members also flagged capital costs and timing as central constraints. Unidentified Speaker 1 asked staff to gather cost, reimbursement and grant information; Unidentified Speaker 6 confirmed the state has set aside grant funding targeted to HVAC projects and said the district plans to apply and will start a five-year HVAC/equipment evaluation to support the application.

Next steps: the committee charged staff to collect baseline data (Colliers/owner's-rep input and the SLAM report), draft evaluation criteria for assessing options, and map which items could be advanced in March versus later months. The committee tentatively set its next meeting for Jan. 16 and noted the Board of Education facilities meeting is scheduled for the evening of Jan. 7.

Votes at a glance: the meeting recorded a procedural motion to approve minutes from last May (moved by Unidentified Speaker 3; motion declared approved; tally not specified) and a subsequent motion to adjourn (moved by Unidentified Speaker 2; carried by assent). The committee did not make any binding decisions about specific projects at this meeting.

The committee adjourned after confirming the Jan. schedule and wishing members happy holidays.