Committee adopts revised wellness policy, approves calendar and releases selected executive minutes

At the March 19 meeting the Westwood School Committee took several procedural actions in addition to its budget and MSBA items.

Policy: The committee waived a third reading and unanimously adopted a revised Wellness Policy (Policy ADF). The revisions add explicit sections on mental health, digital wellness, and social-emotional learning and include language requiring the district to monitor both local student data and national trends to guide future policy adjustments.

Calendar: The 20262027 draft calendar, which the committee reviewed, includes 19 early-release days for professional development and contractual tasks (report-card writing, conferences). Staff said the calendar schedules early releases approximately twice per month and noted building-level variation in how the days are used; staff offered to publish more detail about the focus of each professional-development day to help families understand the schedule.

Minutes and executive session: Following a roll-call vote to enter executive session, the committee returned to open session and approved multiple previously closed executive session minutes from 2025 for release while retaining others as non-releasable; the committee said it will continue periodic review of closed minutes.

Votes at a glance: the committee approved the MSBA SOI authorization, the $95,000 internal transfer to contracted services, warrant-article recommendations to Town Meeting and the wellness-policy adoption; most motions passed unanimously.