By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — The Board of Education is requesting a special $630,000 appropriation from the town for a school-based security communications system at Staples High School.

The 7-0 vote came at the end of the board’s meeting Monday with no discussion. The item was added to the agenda at the start of the meeting by another unanimous vote.

Neither the board nor Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice would say specifically what would be purchased.

“It’s a recommendation I have to the board to enhance communications,” Scarice told the board. “It will serve to provide clearer access and viability to students, staff and all the adults in the school community.”

After the meeting, Scarice said the purchase would enhance the communication system already used for emergency situations.

It is doubtful the system will be installed until the fall since it still must receive approval from the Board of Finance and Representative Town Meeting.

“That would be the goal,” Scarice said.

Scarice said the security issue was discussed during an hour-long executive session Monday evening, which was closed to the public and held prior to the board’s regular meeting at Staples High School. 

As a result, he would not be more specific about what the funds would buy. Security matters are subjects the board is allowed to discuss behind closed doors.

The school district already has a variety of security-related tools. The new equipment will enhance what already is in place, Scarice said.

The board’s vote comes a week after the latest deadly school shooting to rock the nation, this one on March 27 in Nashville, Tenn., that left three students and three adults dead.

When the RTM Education Committee approved the 2023-24 school budget last week, security concerns were discussed.

Parents who attended the online meeting said they were worried.

Scarice assured that meeting the school district has sound safety protocols in place. He praised the district’s relationship with the Police Department.

Well over a year ago, the school board had a lengthy discussion about the presence of police at the town’s schools and whether officers assigned to cover elementary and middle schools should be stationed inside or outside.

Staples High School already has an assigned school resource officer.

Last May, the school board met with top police officials in executive session to discuss security matters.

Freelance writer Linda Conner Lambeck, a reporter for more than four decades at the Connecticut Post and other Hearst publications, is a member of the Education Writers Association.