During last week’s Board of Education meeting, Westport Public Schools CFO Elio Longo described that the Saugatuck Elementary School roof system would need to be replaced soon - and that a State grant would pay for a large portion of the project. The roof, being about 20 years old, is at the end of its serviceable life and is was a planned project for the near future.

A grant from the Connecticut School Construction Grant Program was used for the project when it was first completed in 2001, off-setting most of the project’s costs. The District is able to re-apply for the grant after 20 years has passed (for the specific project), which was the plan for the upcoming replacement of the roof.

However when Longo began to investigate the grant process, it was found out that although the District received the grant monies for the projects 20 years ago - the District’s former administration never “closed” the grants out, leaving them open for two decades while curbing any hope of reapplying for them this year.

This small technicality may block the District from applying for the grant for an additional 20 years. Longo said during tonight’s meeting that after further investigation, about a half dozen of these open grants were discovered, dating back to projects from the 1990s.

Longo and Board of Education members said that the projects would continue without the grants in place, but that they would work with the State of Connecticut to see if the grants could be applied for and used retroactively due to the nature of the situation.