Staples Music Parent Association Donates $10,000 to Westport Public Schools for Recording Technology
Last night’s Board of Education meeting announced that the Staples Music Parent Association has donated $10,000 to the Staples Music Department for the purchase of music recording technology. The donation was made from the Charlie Karp Memorial Fund. Karp was a renowned musician hailing from Westport Public Schools who passed away in March of 2019.
RTM Public Protection and Finance Committees Discuss Funding for New 911 Dispatch Center, New Police Officers, and COVID-19 Accounts Tonight at 6:00.
During tonight’s virtual joint meeting of the Finance and Public Protection committees, the pandemic, new dispatching center, as well as new hires will all be part of the discussion of the members attending.
They’ll be discussing an additional appropriation of $508,470 towards the new Westport-Fairfield Dispatching center, making the original 2017 proposal of 1.42 million a (now) total of 1.92 million dollars. The center will be housed at Sacred Heart University’s West Campus, or the former GE headquarters, in Fairfield.
They’ll also discuss funding related to four vacancies within the Westport Police Department’s ranks, as well a request for an additional $380,000 to be moved from the General Fund into the COVID-19 account for pandemic related costs, such as employee testing.
Hurricane Isaias will make its (monetary) return, with a $780,000 request of funds moved into the August storm’s specific account for all storm related expenses.
Click here for full agenda and Zoom link for the 6:00 PM virtual meeting.
Westport Public Schools: COVID-19 Numbers Down
The Westport Public Schools announced that their cases and quarantines have gone down since last week, according to the Reopening Dashboard. As of yesterday they had 34 positive cases amongst students and staff, with 284 quarantined.
In the past week, the District saw 45 cases and over 400 quarantined - bumping their risk category from “Moderate Risk” to “High Risk” with the small influx of cases. Today’s dip was welcomed as parents and staff both discussed the reopening of Staples High School this coming Thursday to all students. According to the District’s data, 16 of the cases are all involving Staples High School students or staff members.